


Chasing stars

by zupergurl1



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: A lot of softness but also drama here and there to spice things up, Alternate Universe, Dani befriends superstar Charlotte, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Jamie is Charlotte's gardener, Lesbian Panic, Like who's Viola and what's her dark plan?, Little bit of angst, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:09:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29734359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zupergurl1/pseuds/zupergurl1
Summary: Running from her past, Dani escapes to England, where she starts teaching in a private school for the children from the elite. There she meets moviestarlet & mum of two, Charlotte Wingrave, who also fled America to escape the turmoil in her life after divorcing Dominic Wingrave. The two immediately understand each other and develop an unconvential friendship. With Dani making regular trips to Bly manor, she was bound to run into the grumpy, sarcastic gardener at some point. Dani hadn't expected herself to be so drawn to the mysterious brunette tough.
Relationships: Dani Clayton & Jamie, damie - Relationship
Comments: 12
Kudos: 46





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I Dani's introduction took longer then I thought. Don't give up though, Jamie will be introduced in the next chapter

When Dani had seen the job listing, there was no question in her mind as to whether she should take it or not. Instantly she was pulled to what it promised to bring her. Distance. A new chance. A new life. But most of all, an escape from the world she had currently built around her. A world she no longer wanted to be part of. She did not want to fake like she belonged in that life anymore. So, maybe for the very first time since she was born, she took a risk and made the leap into something new. And that was how she ended up all the way in England, working at a private school that was known for teaching the children from the elite. It was quite the change from her old, usual life in Iowa and often she had the feeling that it was all just a very long dream she hadn’t yet woken up from. She knew that she was incredibly lucky that the school had chosen HER of all people to teach the second grade. Off course she had enough experience and the right qualifications for the job. But still, it was quite wonderful that from all the candidates, they had ended up choosing her. Dani had to admit that she felt kind of proud of herself for pulling that off. And doing it all on her own as well without anyone to help or support her.

She wasn’t going to lie though, her first day on the job had been very intense. Most of the kids were really nice, but as with any new teacher, they tried out her boundaries and she found that she had to be quite firm to keep her authority. Her coworkers had all been incredibly welcoming to her and very intrigued about the American life she had led before moving across the ocean. It had been a hot topic in the teachers room during their breaks. As long as Dani could stay on safe topics that didn’t involve to much of her personal life, she was more than happy to answer the questions that were thrown her way. Meeting the parents of the children had been the most intimidating part of her day. She knew that many of them were very influential people and they probably wouldn't be scared to give her a piece of their mind when they didn’t agree with her teaching methods. Thankfully, it all had been going well enough and the day had gone by before she could realize it. Now she’s been teaching for a few weeks in the school and she had easily settled into her new routine.

One of the parents had grown very close to Dani as well over time. She knew she really shouldn’t allow that to happen since she still had to stay objective enough about the kid in her class, but it was hard to push the blooming friendship away when she was still so new in the area and hardly had made any other friends yet. Besides, she found that she could relate quite a bit to Charlotte Wingrave, who had also recently moved from America to England to do a new film project and to escape the turmoil she had caused in Los Angeles after divorcing her husband and the father of her kids to be with his brother, Henry Wingrave. It seemed like they both came here to settle and escape something from their past, and that was probably the reason why their bond had deepened so fast over the course of a few weeks. Dani had seen a few of Charlotte’s movies, so at first it had been so weird to see this stunning lady in real life. But soon she discovered how nice and down-to-earth Charlotte actually was and how interested she also seemed to be in Dani’s life, no matter how unglamorous it was compared to hers. Dani had found herself growing quite at ease in the woman’s presence and she noticed that Charlotte enjoyed her company as well after a long, exhausting day at work. They didn’t get a lot of time to catch up with each other though, due to the busy life of the movie star. But Dani appreciated all the times that Charlotte did keep free to meet up with her. When Charlotte was able to pick up her kids, Miles and Flora, from school, she always stayed a little longer to get a chance to talk with Dani and ask her about her day. But most of the times the kids got picked up by their nanny, Hannah Grose, since their mum was still out shooting scenes until late at night. Dani often wondered what it was like for the kids to grow up in the spotlights. It was not a situation they had asked for and it probably wasn’t always easy on them. Especially now, during their parents’ divorce, which was currently the most popular topic in every magazine. It was certainly no wonder that both of them had developed their own little quirks that definitely deserved her attention from time to time.

She pondered a little bit about both of the children, before she decided to get up and go home, since the school had already ended a few minutes ago. The start of the autumn break had begun and the kids had all been very excited to leave class and get a week off. Dani was also looking forward to getting some time to herself. She cleaned up her desk and took the keys of her class to close the door behind her. In the hallway she nearly bumped into Rebecca Jessel, one of her younger coworkers. They were around the same age, both in their early twenties and the relatively newer teachers at the school. That’s why Dani found it more easy to talk to Rebecca then to some of her other coworkers.

“Hey Dani. Off to enjoy the autumn break?”

“I very much am ready to do so.” She smiled.

“Do you have any plans tonight?”

“I think I’ll just spend my evening binging some Netflix-shows and ordering take-away.”

Rebecca laughed. “Sounds very interesting. Tough if you want, you could come with me and some other coworkers. We were just about to head off to a pub to get some drinks and celebrate the start of our break.”

Dani felt something tingle inside her chest. This was the first time she was getting invited to something outside of the school hours. It seemed like she was slowly getting more and more accepted by the group of teachers. She was glad she hadn’t made any other plans so that she could immediately agree to coming with them to the pub.

Rebecca took them to a small and cosy pub that wasn’t located far away from the school. They settled into some place inside and ordered their drinks from a nice, young waitress.

“Cheers to the autumn break!” One of her coworkers said, to which they all clinked glasses.

Some nice conversation started to erupt and Dani was contented to listen to all the stories that were being shared at the table. Most of it was gossip about some of the more difficult parents to work with, but after a while the conversations moved on to topics that had nothing to do with their work anymore. Dani found herself talking to someone about the newest true crime documentary that had come out and that she had recently watched.

A slight nudge from Rebecca next to her interrupted her conversation.

“That lad over there has been staring at you for quite some time now.” Rebecca grinned as she pointed to a tall guy standing at the bar.

Dani looked up and saw indeed how he was looking her way. When he caught her eyes, he winked and raised the glass in his hand in a way of greeting her. Uninterested, Dani turned back around and took a sip of her own drink.

“Aren’t you going to go up to him? He’s pretty good-looking, if I do say so myself.” Rebecca said whilst taking another look at the guy waiting at the bar.

“He’s not really my type.” Dani said awkwardly, whilst shifting in her chair.

Rebecca shot her a confused look. “Not your type? Gorgeous, tall and a sweet smile isn’t your type?” she asked incredulously.

Dani swallowed nervously, realizing this topic was bound to have come up sooner or later. However, she was still not fully prepared to do this. She noticed how the palms of her hands had starting sweating and she took another sip of her drink to calm her nerves. Rebecca was eyeing her curiously. Dani realized that she had to make the jump, no matter how anxious she felt about it. But she had ran away from America for a reason. To be herself. And she wasn’t going to spent her life in England hiding her true self just the way she had done back at home. If that was the case, she might as well pack up all her things and move back again. If her coworkers didn’t want to accept her, then so be it. There probably were plenty of other schools in which she would be able to fit in and be herself. Dani took a deep breath, before looking up at Rebecca and letting the words spill out of her mouth.

“Well I’m gay. So I’m pretty sure he’s not exactly what I’m looking for.” She managed to say.

Other conversations abruptly ended and Dani could feel how more than a few eyes landed on her. She sat there quietly until she could feel Rebecca’s hands on hers.

“That’s great Dani. Thank you for telling us.” She said, smiling sweetly.

Dani could see a few other coworkers nod in agreement and smile encouragingly at her as well.

“Aye. Boys ain’t no use anyways. Take that from me.” A woman said and the others around the table erupted in laughter.

Dani released the breath she didn’t know she was holding and slumped back into her chair, relieved. She felt as if a huge boulder had been lifted from her shoulders. She did it. She actually had done it and came out to all these people! This was the first time she had come out to anyone, except for Eddie and her mother. Two situations that hadn’t exactly gone amazingly well. Dani was so happy that this time nobody seemed to make a problem out if it. She grinned as she picked up the conversation where she had left it earlier and talked some more about the latest true crime documentary. Her head was still buzzing from the happiness that her coming out had brought her. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so happy and so damn _alive._ So far moving to England had proved to be her best idea ever.

*****

That night Dani came home the happiest she had felt since a long time into her little apartment. She kept thinking of the great evening she just had with some wonderful people that she could totally see turn into friends on the long road. It had felt good to go out and socialize. It had been a little hard for her to settle in since she still didn’t know a lot of people. But each day she was starting to feel more and more at home here. She hummed quietly in herself as she closed the front door behind her and took her shoes and jacket off. For the first time that evening she took her phone out of her handbag and checked if she had any missed messages. She could see that someone had indeed tried to call her. She also had a whole bunch of unopened messages waiting to be read. Dani heaved a big sigh and scrolled through all of her notifications.

As she suspected, most of them came from Eddie. Eddie. Begging her to come back. Begging her to give him another chance. Eddie. Telling her she was just confused. That he couldn’t believe she was willing to waste all of their years together just for a temporary moment of disorientation. Eddie who blamed all of this on her having cold feet and who seemed convinced that sooner or later she would stop acting silly and go back to him. Dani swiped all of the notifications away, without clicking on any of them. She did not feel like putting up with any of this today. His texts had already put a damper on her earlier happy mood. It made Dani long to go back in time for a few minutes so she could still sit in the pub, blissfully unaware of her ex trying to get in touch with her. She chucked the phone on the kitchen table and started to fumble in her fridge, looking for something to eat since she was starving after the night out. She found something she could microwave and put that in. After a few minutes her microwave was beeping and she could eat her dinner. After eating she sank onto her couch and put a popular Netflix show on. It didn’t take her long to start drifting to sleep tough, the exhaustion of her working day and her evening at the pub finally kicking in. She woke up the next morning because of her phone ringing loudly from the kitchen.

“Ugh Eddie…..Really ? On a Saturday?” she mumbled groggy as she stood up from the couch and went to the kitchen to pick up her phone.

Much to her surprise though, she saw that it wasn’t Eddie ringing her. It was Charlotte, who had given Dani her number a few days ago. With the strict rule that she was not allowed to share it with anyone else. Not that Dani would have done that anyways, but Charlotte was pretty keen on her privacy.

“Hello?” she said as she picked up.

“Dani? It’s me, Charlotte.”

“Good morning Charlotte. Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s great. Look, I was calling because I had some free time before going in for a photoshoot. Do you want to go and grab a coffee somewhere or are you busy?”

“We could…Go for a coffee.” Dani said as she yawned and glanced at the time on the clock in her kitchen.

It was only a few minutes past seven. No lazy Saturday morning for her then it seemed.

“I’ve also got some news for you. That’s why I called on such short notice. Are you sure you’re fine to meet?”

Dani’s curiosity was peeked as she wondered what Charlotte’s bit of news could be.

“Yes sure it’s no problem. I’ll get ready and then be there in a few. Where is it that you want to get your coffee?”

Charlotte named the place of the coffee shop and hang up so that Dani could get ready to meet her. She quickly hopped into the shower and put some new clothes on. Secretly she hoped that Charlotte’s place wasn’t something to fancy. After all, her teacher’s salary was definitely no match compared to whatever Charlotte earned throughout a year. Dani brushed her hair and put some make up on before she put her jacket and some shoes on and left her apartment, on the way to the coffee shop that Charlotte had chosen for them. When she arrived she could see her new friend already sitting inside. She looked stunning. She was clearly ready to go to that photoshoot after this. Dani felt a little self-conscious as she took place across the woman.

“Good morning Dani! I’m glad you could make it! What would you like to order? And don’t worry, it’s on me. It’s the least I can do after hauling you all the way here.” Charlotte greeted her as she motioned to her friend to go sit down in front of her.

“Oh eh...You really don’t have to do that Charlotte. It’s all fine.” Dani said.

“No , I insist.”

Dani smiled politely as she gave her order to the barrister, before she returned her focus on Charlotte, who oddly seemed to execute a nervous energy she hadn’t seen on her before. Normally Charlotte was so calm and poised. Something was definitely going on. And that’s when Dani spotted it.

“Oh my god Charlotte! That ring! It’s huge!” she said as she took the woman’s hand in her own to admire the stone at her finger.

Charlotte beamed proudly at her. “So…This is what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“You’re getting married?” Dani asked her excitedly.

Her friend nodded energetically. “The divorce with Miles and Flora’s dad is finally trough. So Henry and I thought it would be great to…You know. Take things a step further.”

Dani could tell that Charlotte was very happy to finally share the news with someone. But she also immediately thought about Miles and Flora.

“What do the kids think of this? Are they okay with Henry?”

“Flora loves it. The idea of a big wedding with me in a princess dress is thrilling to her. Miles….He’s not as excited as I would have hoped him to be. But you know…These things are hard.” She sighed.

Dani nodded understandingly.

“Anyways, I’m sure that eventually it’ll all work out fine. Henry gets along great with both of them. I think it’s just the idea that things between me and his dad will be over for real that is bothering Miles a little.”

“Mhm. I can imagine.”

“I’m sure he’ll come around. But anyways, in regards to my wedding, I was planning on asking you something. It’s kind of big, so feel free to decline it if it’s too much that I’m asking from you. It’s just that I don’t know that many people here yet, or well, nobody I’ve grown that close too except for you. Like, I trust you and I don’t know…Maybe I should leave it to someone more qualified. I’m sure you’ll be busy on your own and…” she rambled.

Dani had to laugh and interrupted Charlotte. “Charlotte, it’s fine. Just ask what you want to ask.”

“Yes, yes. What I wanted to ask was…If you would be okay with helping me plan this wedding.” She asked shyly.

Dani sat still for a moment, stunned by the request.

“Plan…The wedding. Do you mean like….All of it?”

“Oh, no no, I mean yes, I mean, I will also have a wedding planner off course. And I will also check in to make certain decisions myself. But I just….Want you to keep a general eye on things and help me make certain choices. Like location….Flowers…Maybe help me pick a dress. Talk with the wedding planner and see what she has to say. That is, if you want too off course.”

“Really? Wow. So like…You’re asking me to be a maid of honor of sorts?”

Charlotte smiled sheepishly. “It’s going to be a lot though. I want you to know that. I’ll be gone a lot for filming and Henry will be going on business trips. So if you want to do this, I need you to realize that most of the chores will probably fall on your shoulders. But yes, I guess that’s what I’m asking from you, yeah.”

Dani smiled at her and thought a little about the question she had just been asked. Planning a wedding. It certainly sounded like it was going to be a lot. And she didn’t know if saying yes would be the smartest thing to do in this scenario. With the kids there it would certainly be pretty challenging. As a teacher she had to stay objective, and she was afraid that if she spent more time with this family outside of the school hours that it might become harder for her to do so. Plus, after dumping Eddie literally days away from her own marriage, the idea of already planning another one was kind of….Weird. Even if it wasn’t hers. She know it would just bring back certain memories. But on the other hand, she didn’t want to disappoint Charlotte, who had been her only real friend in this country so far. Dani knew that after her divorce with Dominic, Charlotte had gone through a rough path. Her friends in America had almost all taken his side. That was probably the reason why she asked her, Dani, a simple teacher, to do this. Dani bit her lip and made her decision.

“Okay, I’m going to do it. But I want you to know that I also still have my job to tend too.” She said.

Charlotte clapped excitedly in her hands.

“Amazing! I’m so grateful for that, you’re really saving me here! And yes, off course, I know you also have your life. That’s why you’ll get as much help as you need. And if there’s a problem, you can always ring me as you have my number.”

Dani smiled and nodded. Her friend seemed pretty happy.

“Right, so I guess we best get started as soon as possible? Are you able to come to my place on Monday so we can go over the details? It’s the only day that week that I’ll be free. I’ll also make sure the wedding planner will be there already.”

Damn. Charlotte really did have no time to waste. Dani was slightly overwhelmed, but nodded anyways. There was no use in pretending she wasn’t free all week.

“I can do Monday yes. How late are we talking? And I will need to know your address.”

“How about 10? I can sent my driver to come pick you up.”

“Ten works for me. But there’s no need to go through all that trouble and get me a driver. I can take a bus or get a cab.”

“Nonsense, Dani. It’s the least I can do for you. Oh, come to think of it, I will also make sure my gardener will be coming in on Monday. Figured she’s familiar with my taste on the flower department and she can talk you trough things so you can get started on that mission with no problems. Two birds in one stone, right? After talking to her I am sure it will be easier for you to envision the floral arrangements and tell the florists what we want. Plus I think it would be great if she could transform the garden a little bit so it would have some matching elements from the wedding day.”

Dani’s head was already buzzing with all this new information. What had she gotten herself into? It felt as if she had agreed to get a second job or something. But she could do this. All she had to do was breathe. Breathe and take one thing at a time. For some reason Charlotte had trusted her out of all people to do this. Granted, that was probably because she didn’t know many other people in England yet, just like Dani, but it was still very flattering. Charlotte thought she could do this. Now she just had to start believing in herself too. They chatted a little bit more about the wedding and other topics before Charlotte had to set off to the photoshoot. When they left the coffee place, a flash went off and Dani startled a little, trying to find out what just happened.

“Damn paparazzi.” Charlotte mumbled as she put sunglasses on her face.

“Oh right.” Dani said as she spotted the photographer who had been carefully hiding away between some parked cars.

This was probably going to be an occurrence she had to get used to if she wanted to hang out with her friend. She didn’t really know how to feel about that. How did Charlotte even deal with this life? How did it not drive her insane? Charlotte got into her car that was parked outside and said her goodbyes to Dani. She waved one last time before rolling her blinded window up and driving away. Dani watched the car disappear before she made her way back to her apartment to enjoy the rest of her Saturday.


	2. Chapter 2

On Monday Dani woke up early to get herself ready for the task at hand. She felt a bit nervous, seen as it would be the first time she was invited over at Charlotte’s house. Knowing how big of a star Charlotte was, she could only imagine how huge the place was going to be. Especially compared to her own little apartment. Not that she minded this place. It was hers after all, and she had been so excited to put her own mark on it and make it feel cozy and homey. But still, it was probably a world of difference with the Wingrave’s residence. Dani took a quick shower and put her favorite purple sweater on with a pair of jeans that made her butt look great. She brushed her hair and put a little bit of make-up on. When she was finally satisfied with the way she looked, she went to put on her shoes. As she was doing so, she got a text message that said her driver was waiting outside. She looked out of her window and caught a glimpse of the big, black car parked in the street. Dani could feel excitement bubble up inside of her as she ran down the flight of stairs from her apartment. She couldn’t believe she was going to be driven around in such a fancy car! The chauffeur was already waiting on her, opening the door as she came closer.

“Good morning, miss.”

“Good morning!” Dani said as she awkwardly stepped inside of the car.

Her chauffeur closed the door behind her and got into the driver’s seat. A few seconds later they set off and Dani could see hills and green fields flash past the blinded windows. She stared at the typical English scenery and enjoyed the occasional sightings of cows and horses. After somewhat of a half an hour drive they arrived at the gates of what appeared to be Charlotte’s home. Dani stared in awe at the enormous property in front of her. It was gorgeous. The house stood tall and proud on top of a hill, surrounded by acres of land that had been carefully tended too. Flowers and plants made the gigantic garden look magical and other-worldly. The car drove up the driveway and parked right outside of the front door. Dani got out and her eyes were immediately drawn to the lake on her left. The sunlight made the water simmer and she found herself unexplainably drawn to it. As if the lake was calling out for her. She thought she could see someone walk around the lake, but it was too far away for her to be sure.

“Welcome to Bly manor.” Dani heard the chauffeur say.

“Thank you for the drive.”

He nodded at her and walked up the front steps to knock at the door.

Charlotte had to be waiting, because the door flew open within seconds.

“Dani! There you are! Come in, come in.”

She ushered Dani into the house and closed the front door behind her.

“Hi, Charlotte. What a lovely place you have!”

“Why, thank you! I just love the typical English architecture, don't you? Let’s get settled in the living room. The wedding planner is already here as well.”

Charlotte motioned for Dani to follower her, and she was happy to oblige because she did not want to get lost in this maze of a house. It was huge. How could one family need so much space? But she had to admit that it was gorgeous. This was one of the nicest houses she had ever come across in her life. They went into the living room, where a young, blonde lady in a suit was already waiting on them. Charlotte quickly introduced them to each other.

The next hour they talked about the wedding and the possible ideas and themes that could be used. They were so busy talking that Dani almost didn’t notice how someone else joined them in the living room. Almost. She hadn’t seen her come in, but she had definitely felt the atmosphere change. It was as if her mere presence made the energy inside the room shift towards her. Dani looked up and her eyes were immediately drawn to the young, beautiful woman that was standing quietly in a corner of the room. She stood there looking unbothered, like she didn’t have a care in the world. Soft brown curls fell over the delicate features of her face and accentuated the most stunning grey eyes that Dani had ever come across. Her skin was smooth and she had silky, pink lips that were perched together, as she seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. Dani couldn’t help but stare at this gorgeous woman in her denim overalls and green rain boots. As if she felt that someone was looking at her, the woman turned her head a little and locked eyes with Dani. She smirked and Dani could immediately feel herself blushing.

“Ah, Jamie, there you are!” Charlotte said when she finally noticed the girl standing there.

“Good morning miss Wingrave.” Jamie nodded.

“Jamie, let me introduce you to Olivia, my wedding planner. And this here is my dear friend Dani.”

Jamie walked over to greet them and shake their hands. She had a firm grasp and Dani felt Jamie’s thumb brush slightly over the back of her hand. She shivered slightly at the soft touch from the other woman. Jamie seemed to have picked up on that because a sly grin spread across her face, causing Dani to blush even more. Jamie lingered a little bit longer then completely necessary around Dani, before taking a step back and diverting her attention back to Charlotte.

“Was there anything you needed, miss Wingrave?” she asked whilst curiously eyening the visitors.

“There was in fact a reason as to why I asked you to come in today, Jamie. As you probably already know I’ll marry mister Wingrave soon.”

Jamie nodded.

“And I was discussing with Olivia and Dani how amazing it would be if I could do our engagement photoshoot here. Which means that I want the style of the wedding reflected in the gardens and around the house.”

Jamie looked slightly taken aback by this request and Dani felt a little sorry for her. Charlotte could be a bit much sometimes. She always had plenty ideas but not always a solid plan as to how she would bring them alive.

“Right. And what would the style be?”

Charlotte heaved a big sigh. “That I am not completely sure of yet. Either traditional or whimsical.”

Jamie quirked an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.

“Anyways, that’s why I called you in here, so you could meet Dani and Olivia. You’ll need to co-ordinate everything with them. I’ve already told Dani that you’re most familiar with my taste on flowers and plants. I hope she can count on you if she has any questions about that?”

“Certainly” Jamie said whilst glancing over at Dani.

She had that cute, local accent that Dani had grown familiar with over the past months.

“So that’s settled…Apart from that I’ll need you too…”

A loud ringtone disrupted the rest of Charlotte’s sentence and she looked dismayed as she picked up her phone. A short conversation entailed before she hang up again and sighed again.

“That was my job. Apparently some scenes I’ve already shot turned out to be completely useless and I need to come in again today. So I guess I’ll have to cut this meeting short. I’m terribly sorry.” She said.

Dani couldn’t help but feel a little bit disappointed. Already? She hadn’t even been here an hour. She didn’t have nearly enough information to get started with the task at hand and it wasn’t like she knew charlotte THAT well that she could just go with her gut feeling. How was she ever going to be able to do all this? And why couldn’t Charlotte just rely on the decisions from her wedding planner? A woman much more qualified than her to make sure her special day would be perfect.

“Right. Is there anything important I need to say? Let me think. Ehm...Oh yeah, Dani, you can come by at any time you like, I’ll tell Hannah to let you in. Else I think we got everything covered. Thank you for coming along, Olivia. I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I can. Oh and I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a tour around the place, Dani. Maybe you can ask Jamie to walk you through the garden before you go tough? It might be very inspiring.” She rambled as she chaotically walked around the living room, trying to collect all of her stuff.

“Jamie, will you make sure that Dani can find her way out later?”

Jamie nodded and stuffed both of her hands in the pockets of her overall. She didn’t seem to be particularly pleased with the assignment, but it was clear that she didn’t dare to refuse anything Charlotte asked from her. Dani could feel the annoyance radiating off of her tough and she felt a little awkward.

“Miles! Flora! Come say goodbye to mommy before I have to go to work!” Charlotte yelled in the hallway as she walked out of the living room on the highest pair of heels Dani had ever seen. The sound of her heels echoed for a little while until she was too far away to hear the click-clacking. Olivia gathered her stuff and smiled politely to Dani.

“So it sounds like we’ll be working together for quite a bit the next months. Here’s my business card so you can contact me as well.” She said as she handed Dani a small, rose colored card.

“Thank you very much.” Dani beamed as she took the card between her fingers.

She studied the golden letters for a while until she decided to put it away in one of the pockets of her jeans.

“Right, I’ll go get on then to one of my other clients. Don’t worry, I’ll be able to find my own way out.” Olivia said, turning to Jamie.

Jamie shrugged and they both watched her leave the living room as well, so that it was just the two of them. For a minute they were quiet, both of them not knowing what to say to the other. Eventually it was Dani who interrupted the silence that had settled over them.

“So you take care of the garden then?” she asked.

Right after she had said it, she wished she could take it back. What on earth possessed her to say that? What a dumb question to ask the girl who was very clearly dressed in gardening attire. Good god why was she so socially awkward at times? From the corner of her eyes she could see Jamie's bemused smile.

“What gave it away?” the other woman said.

“Well it looked beautiful. It must take you a lot of work to keep everything like that.” She rambled nervously.

“It takes some effort yeah. But I like it. Besides, I prefer being around plants over being around people.”

Dani smiled nervously, unsure what to say to that. Jamie must have picked up on her awkwardness, because her face softened up and she gave a slight nod towards the door.

“Come on. Can I get you a cuppa?”

By now Dani was familiar enough with the English slang to know that she meant tea.

“Yes, thank you.” She said as she followed Jamie towards the kitchen of the house.

There was a man standing behind the stove and he smiled friendly as they entered the kitchen. The food he was cooking smelled delicious and Dani could feel her stomach starting to rumble.

“Good morning Owen. Can you make a cup of tea for miss…” Jamie glanced over at Dani, realizing she never got her last name.

“Clayton. But you can say Dani.” Dani smiled warmly.

“For Dani.”

“Once cuppa tea coming right up.”

They both watched as he moved around the kitchen putting the kettle on.

“So what brings you here, Dani?” Owen asked as he leaned against the counter.

“Charlotte is a friend of mine. She asked me to help with her wedding. Although I must say I have no clue what I’m doing.”

Owen burst out in laughter and looked over at Jamie. “So honest. I already like this one.”

Dani blushed at his unexpected compliment.

“Why did she ask you to help her then?” Jamie questioned her.

“I’ve been wondering the same thing. Honestly, it’s probably because she felt bad I broke off my own wedding.” Dani said.

Jamie’s eyebrows shot up in the air and Dani could see the surprise in her eyes. Dani was equally surprised about the fact that she had just blurted that out. It was not really an aspect of her life that she wanted a lot of people to know about. 

“Blimey. Did not see that one coming.” Jamie mumbled.

“Yeah well…You could say that neither did he.” Dani replied drily.

Owen snorted and looked at her in bemusement. Dani saw that even Jamie had to hide a smile.

“I’m sure you’ll do a nice job helping out miss Wingrave.” Owen said as he gave her a small cup of scolding hot tea.

Dani gratefully took the cup from him and took a small sip. It tasted delicious. Way better then when she would have made it. Even tho she had been living in England for about four months now, she had to admit that she still had no idea how to make a decent cup of tea. Some day she had to get into that, to prove her loyalty to this country. But today was not going to be that day. She took another sip, and it was then that she noticed the pile of tabloids laying on the kitchen table. Her eye fell on the cover of the one laying on top. She almost choked in her drink as she saw her own face peering back at her from the cover.

“What…?” she mumbled confused as she picked the magazine up.

She could see a stunning shot of Charlotte walking in front of her, elegant in an effortless kind of way. And right behind her she could see herself, looking overwhelmed, like a deer that got caught in the headlamps of a car. Definitely a lot less elegant then her friend.

“Charlotte Wingrave spotted drinking coffee with mysterious friend during turbulent divorce with Dominic Wingrave.” She read.

She immediately remembered the photographer that had snapped the pic of them at the coffee shop they had gone too last Saturday. But Dani had never thought that the pic would actually make it in to some kind of paper or magazine. Especially not on the cover of one. If she had known she’d have tried to look a little bit…more decent. Was this what it was like for everyone that was hanging out with Charlotte? Because if so, she’d have to get more used to things like this happening. She could feel Jamie and Owen observing her curiously from across the room and sheepishly she put the magazine back down.

“Thank you for the tea.” Dani said as she gave the empty cup back.

“It was my pleasure. Personally olive a good cup of tea as well.” Owen chuckled, entirely too proud of his own pun.

Jamie rolled her eyes at him and let out a big, desperate sigh. But Dani could see she did it in an affectionate manner.

“Right then. D’you still fancy a trip around the garden?” Jamie asked Dani.

“Oh, I’d love too.” Dani said excitedly.

“Let’s get going then before the bloody weather changes on us.”

Dani hurried behind her, trying to match her footsteps with the gardeners one. Jamie had stuffed her hands in her pockets and walked quietly down the graveled pathway leading them around the house. Dani secretly glanced at the moody brunette and her tense posture as she walked beside her. It seemed like small-talk was going to be off the table. Which was fine by her. She could totally go without talking. In fact, she was great at being quiet and enjoying some moments of silence. That was totally something she could do.

“I love that particular feeling that autumn brings. It’s like coming home to an old friend.” She said as she took a deep breath to smell the nature around her.

Jamie didn’t reply but kept walking.

“I always get nostalgic on beautiful days like these. I don’t know why. It might be the crunching of the leaves under your feet. Or the variety of colors on the trees.”

“Mhm.”

“So eh….Charlotte mentioned you were familiar with her flower taste. What is it that she likes? I want to do this whole thing right and I was hoping you could help me.”

Jamie shrugged. “Miss Wingrave likes flowers that can express how she sees herself.”

“And what does that look like?” Dani questioned.

“Flamboyant enough to pull someone’s eyes right away, but nothing extremely extra. Something that people will immediately feel comfortable with and that they can admire for its look. She likes things to be versatile as well, so I wouldn’t suggest to pick a whole lot of flowers in the same colors. And she loves when things are arranged so that it looks like it randomly came together but it’s actually been designed to match and flow well together. Like an intricate surprise.”

Dani was stunned for a moment as she listened to the passionate way in which Jamie was talking about this subject. It was amazing to hear her talk like that and see a glimpse of the woman that she was hiding under that hard exterior.

“Wow…That’s actually really helpful. Thank you. You know so much about this.”

“Well you know. It’s kind of my job, innit?” Jamie said, reverting back to her sarcastic self.

“What is…What is your style?” Dani asked, hesitantly since she didn’t know if this was a question that would be to personal to the gardener.

Jamie blinked a few times and looked pensive for a moment as she thought about her answer.

“I like things that have a meaning. Even if the meaning is only something that I get. I just like knowing there’s a certain story behind a flower. About the way it lives. Or the way it came to exist. Something that goes deeper than the initial pretty exterior that you get to see.”

Dani smiled at the beautiful answer she had gotten on her question.

“What?” Jamie asked her, looking defensively.

“Nothing. I just thought that your answer was pretty cute.”

Jamie scoffed. “That was so not cute.”

“Mhm.”

Jamie rolled her eyes and halted at a flowerbed that had the most magnificent color palette Dani had ever seen.

“See, this is an example of what Charlotte likes.”

“Wow. That’s…Magnificent.” Dani breathed in awe as she let her eyes wander over all the different flowers. Some of them she knew. Others seemed to be so exotic that she didn’t know how they possibly could manage growing here in England’s cold climate.

“They’re also a lot of work.” Jamie said.

Dani bent over and smelled the scent of the flowers closest to her. The aroma overwhelmed her senses and for a minute she was lost in her thoughts. When she opened her eyes again she could see Jamie stare at her, with an unidentified expression on her face. Flustered she stood back up, almost losing her balance in doing so.

“There are a lot of beautiful places like this on this domain.” Jamie said as she turned around to continue their walk.

Dani ran up to her, softly bumping her shoulder against Jamie’s. They walked around the rest of the garden, with Jamie pointing out all the mesmerizing spots. Dani listened intently to everything she said and tried to absorb as much as she could about all the plants, trees and flowers that had been growing here. Eventually they ended up at the lake that Dani had seen earlier when the car had been going up the driveway. The water was dark and still, hiding anything that could be at its bottom.

“This looks like the something out of a painting. Absolutely amazing. It’s probably fun to hold pick-nicks here over summer and take a swim.”

“Wouldn’t swim here if I were you. Seems kind of dangerous.” Jamie replied as she observed the body of water.

Dani didn’t answer, but slightly tilted her head back so that she could soak in the warm rays of sun on her face. She heaved a contented sigh, feeling at peace after the calming walk through all that nature. She didn’t want to leave but she also knew she couldn’t overextend her welcome. That would be very impolite. Plus, Jamie probably had her work to tend to and she had already given up a lot of her time by talking to Dani and walking her around the place.

“Thank you for the tour. I think you really helped me out a lot.” She said.

“No problem.” Jamie said as she stuffed her hands back into her pockets.

“I should get going now.” Dani said whilst quickly glancing on her watch.

She hesitated a bit, but then asked the question anyways. “Could I ehm…have your number? In case I need advice about flowers. Or you know…For when we have to coordinate stuff.”

Jamie lifted one eyebrow and smirked. “Off course…Can I have your phone?”

Dani handed over her phone and watched as Jamie’s fingers rapidly moved over the screen, typing in the correct numbers.

“There we go…Should have no problems coordinating stuff now.” She said as she handed Dani’s phone back.

Dani smiled as she looked at the number. “Thank you. Allright, I better get going now. Oh eh…Is there any chance that there is a bus stop somewhere nearby?”

Jamie frowned confused. “Did you not get here by car?”

“Charlotte sent her driver to pick me up this morning. But now she’s gone with him too her work so I’ll have to find another way to get back home. I could also call a cab if there’s no bus stop, no worries.”

Jamie sighed. “If you want I can give you a ride in my truck. I don’t need you getting lost trying to find the nearest bus stop.”

“Oh, no, there’s no need to bother. I’ll be fine and besides, you’re probably occupied with your job right now.” Dani replied shyly.

“Nah, I wasn’t supposed to come in today anyways. So if you want I can give you a ride. The nearest bus stop is miles away from here and if you want to call a cab you’ll have to wait a while before it arrives. Whereas I could just drop you off at your place right now.”

Dani hesitated a bit. She didn’t want to impose any trouble on Jamie, but the offer was really appealing compared to her other options.

“Okay, if you really don’t mind.” She said.

“Truck’s parked at the side of the house.” Jamie said as she motioned for Dani to follow her.


	3. Chapter 3

Jamie had not expected her day off to go like this. First of all, she was getting called upon by Charlotte to get involved in all of her wedding ideas and plans. Not that she minded it that much. If she could work in her garden and have a little challenge whilst doing so, then she was more than happy to oblige and help her boss out. There was nothing that she preferred more than working in nature. All by herself, with nothing but the plants and flowers to keep her company. However, she had been a little bit less happy when she heard she had to babysit one of Charlotte’s rich, fancy friends today. As if she didn’t have anything better to do then waste her time on an American, spoiled richling who looked like she didn’t even know how to make her own coffee. Admittedly, said American was insanely pretty with her wavy, blond hair and eager blue eyes. And she had seemed really interested in the garden and what Jamie had to do. But then again, Jamie had encountered to many people like this one in the past few months. Rich friends of Charlotte who looked down on the people working for her and more often than not treated them like dirt under their shoe. And if they were lucky, the guests pretended like they didn’t even exist at all. Jamie had met plenty of rude people lately, marching around the mansion as if they owned the place as well. Disrespecting her or Owen and the work they put into their jobs at every turn. How many of them had she seen trampling rare flowers and plants? Just because they thought they shouldn’t walk on the graveled pathways. And how many of them had plucked flowers that were not ready to be plucked at all? And she didn’t even want to start on all the litter she had found on the property whenever guests came around.

Jamie always seethed when she saw another person messing around with the garden. She put so much of her energy and time in it to make it look perfect, so it felt like a punch in the face whenever people acted like entitled pricks, ruining what could sometimes be days of work for her. She had to admit too herself tough that Dani had seemed different than most of Charlotte’s other invitees. The way she had been leaning over to take in the scent of all the flowers….The expression on her face had been so pure and full of delight. Jamie had noticed that for a second the other woman had been lost in her thoughts. Something about her seemed so honest and open. But still, it was hard for her to trust that. Maybe she had just been pretending so she could suck up to Charlotte later and get into her good graces. Wouldn’t be the first time someone had disappointed her because she wasn’t careful enough. She opened the door from her pick-up truck and let Dani step inside. When the blonde was seated, she closed the door and walked around to the driver’s seat so she could get behind the wheel.

“I know it’s probably a lot less fancy then what you’re used too, but it’s gonna get us where we need to be and I guess that’s all that matters.” She said, suddenly feeling defensive about her old, green truck.

Dani looked at her confusedly, but didn’t say anything. She just gave a slight nod and went to look out of the window.

“So…Where are we off too then?” Jamie asked her as she put her car in reverse.

“Queens road.”

Jamie frowned as she mentally navigated the map of the town in her mind. Queens road….Surely that couldn’t be correct. That was just a normal street in town, with some average houses and a few apartments. What on earth would someone wealthy be doing there? Unless her memory wasn’t that good and there were also some bigger houses she just hadn’t noticed yet…She would have to drive up there and see.

“Right, off we go.” She said as she drove down the driveway and went past the gates.

They drove a little in silence, with Dani staring out of the window and Jamie focusing her attention on the road. Usually Jamie enjoyed sitting in silence, but now it felt a little off to her for some reason. Dani hadn’t stopped talking since they had met and to see her so quiet now was almost unsettling. Not that she cared off course. It just made her wonder where the other ones head was at.

“So …America huh. What’s that like.” She heard herself say.

She surprised herself with the question, because she really wasn’t one for small talk. What was it about Dani that made her do this and how could she stop it?

“Oh you know…Where I came from there wasn’t that much to do. Just another farm town where everyone knows everyone. At the end it was very suffocating.”

“Mhm, I guess I can relate to that.” Jamie mumbled, memories of her life growing up here flashing before her eyes.

“It’s like everyone just knows you as you grow up. From baby to toddler to teen too adult. And they put you in this….This box that they think fits you. But I feel like….I feel like sometimes they act as if they own you, as if they’re entitled to you as they push you into that image they have in their head of you. And if you try to get out of the box and show them who you really are…That’s when they try to erase that and act like that’s not the real you. As if they know the real you more than you do. But they don’t…In fact they might not even know you that well at all.” Dani said.

Jamie swallowed, the words touching something deep inside of her. She hadn’t been prepared for that answer and for a second she was stunned into silence. It seemed like Dani had some layers after all and wasn’t just a pretty face with no grasp on the real world. She coughed softly in an attempt to regain her composure and hide the fact that what Dani had said had affected her in some way.

“So…What was that box for you, if you don’t mind me asking?” Jamie asked whilst glancing over at the girl sitting beside her.

She could see Dani’s cheeks turn slightly red at the question.

“Well…Much had to do with my ehm... ex-fiancée….Eddie.”

Jamie shifted slightly in her seat. “Ah yes, the ex-fiancée. I was wondering when we’d get around to that.”

“He…He was my childhood best friend. We…We said we were boyfriend and girlfriend without really knowing what that meant at the age of 7 and since then….Well everyone just expected us to be like that. And I didn’t know anything else. I always felt something wasn’t quite right, but people always just….made it seem like this was how it was supposed to be. Even Eddie seemed perfectly happy with this, so I wondered if something…Was wrong with me. That I didn’t feel the same way as everyone else apparently did.”

“Is that why you broke things off then? Because you weren’t sure if you loved him?”

“Oh no. I broke things off because I was a 100% sure that I didn’t love him. And that I never could. Not him, but not any other guy either. You see, I’m a lesbian as it turned out.” She said.

Jamie’s eyes widened and she swerved a little to the to the left with her car, before turning back to the correct lane. Blimey. Seemed like Dani was full of surprises.

“Oh...Now I can totally understand how all of that combined could be suffocating.”

“Yeah.” Dani said, “That’s why I’m happy I moved here. Here I can start with a clean slate and just be myself. And I won’t let anybody push me into a box anymore.”

Jamie couldn’t help but grin at hearing those words.

“And the more power to you for that.” She said as she turned into Queen’s road.

She carefully eyed the places, but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary or lavishing enough to compare with Bly manor.

“Where did you say it was?” she asked as she slowly moved down the street.

“That apartment building there.” Dani pointed out.

Jamie looked at her confusedly. “There?”

“Yeah. You can just drop me off here, I can walk the last bit.”

Jamie nodded and pulled over at the side of the street.

“Thank you for the ride. I really appreciate it. And thanks for all of your help today as well.”

“Yeah, no problem. I’m glad I could help.”

“I eh…I’ll probably see you at some point again soon, so I guess it’s just a temporary goodbye.”

Jamie smiled. “Bye…for now.”

Dani blushed slightly as she opened the door of the truck and stumbled out of it. She smacked the door close behind her and lifted up a hand to wave at Jamie.

Jamie took one hand of her steering wheel to copy the greeting. She watched as Dani walked away, her butt looking extraordinary good in those jeans. Not that she was staring. Just something she couldn’t help noticing. She saw Dani take out a pair of keys and entering the building she had pointed too earlier. So what she had said was true. She really did live there. A normal, everyday apartment. Not exactly what Jamie had pictured. Anyways, it was none of her business where Dani had decided to live. She turned her truck around in the street and drove back to Bly manor. Even though it was her day off, she figured she could still do some small chores before going back home. Then maybe she could leave a few hours earlier the next day. She parked her truck back at the side of the house and walked to the entrance of the mansion that was reserved for Charlotte’s staff. Jamie entered the kitchen, where Owen was still busying himself with some kind of elaborate meal, and took an apple out of a fruit basket.

“Smells good in here, mate.” She complimented.

Owen wept some sweat out of his brows. “Thanks. I do my best. How was the walk?”

Jamie shrugged. “It was all right. She didn’t bludgeon any of my flowers like some other guests have done.”

“Ah yes. The number one way to get into that heart of yours. Not bludgeoning any flowers.”

“Shut up.” Jamie said as she rolled her eyes at him.

“I actually liked her. She seems…Refreshing.”

“As refreshing as another spoiled elitist brat can be I guess.” Jamie said sarcastically.

“Ah come on, Jamie. They’re not all terribly awful. A lot of them are, but there will always be an exception too the rule.”

“You can take that risk all you want mate. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that American turned out to be as much of an ass as all the other ones we’ve met.”

“What American?” they heard a soft, bespoken voice say behind them.

Jamie turned around and saw Hannah Grose standing in the doorway. Hannah’s eyes lingered a little on Owen, before she looked back at Jamie again. Clearly waiting on an explanation from either one of them. 

“The girl that has been here earlier. Miss Wingrave’s rich, socialite friend.” Jamie explained whilst taking a bite out of the apple she was holding.

Hannah frowned a little as she was trying to figure out who they could be talking about. Jamie's description wasn't exactly helpful since most of Charlotte's friends could be described that way. Owen noticed her confusion and took a magazine from the kitchen table. He tossed it to Hannah and pointed to the glossy pictures on the cover.

“The one on the cover, next to Charlotte. Said her name was Dani.” He said.

Hannah looked at the picture and her eyes widened in recognition.

“That’s not some rich socialite friend of miss Wingrave.” She said.

Owen and Jamie looked at each other, with the same confused expression on their faces.

“What do you mean?”

“Dani is a teacher. She works at Miles and Flora’s school. In fact, she teaches Flora’s grade this year.”

Jamie looked perplexed, the apple in her hand now totally forgotten. “What?”

“Yeah. She recently moved here from America, I’d say around the same time as Charlotte did. She’s a sweet, wonderful person and for some reason Charlotte has taken quite a shine on her. It’s true that they are friends but she happens to be just a girl like you and me.”

“She …She didn’t say that.” Jamie said, a little shell-shocked at the reveal.

Hannah gave her a skeptical look. “Why would she? She didn’t know that the both of you would assume she’s some trustfund baby just because she’s close with Charlotte.”

Jamie blushed and from the corner of her eye she could see that Owen also squirmed awkwardly, having been caught by Hannah on their assumptions.

“Jamie started it. I told her that she seemed nice.” Owen said, pointing with his ladle in Jamie’s direction.

“Pfttt…Way to throw me under the bus there, mate.” She scoffed.

“Each man for their own, Taylor.”

“It certainly explains the apartment where I had to drop her off.” Jamie said, more to herself then to the others.

She noticed Owen and Hannah staring at her. An amused and surprised expression laid on their faces.

“What?”

“You actually let someone sit in that precious truck of yours? My goodness, I never thought I’d see the day where that would happen.” Hannah joked.

“She needed a ride back home. There’s no bus stop anywhere nearby and miss Wingrave had sent her chauffeur this morning to pick her up, so she didn’t have a car.”

“So how does that explain the fact that you didn’t just tell her to fuck off like you normally would have?” Owen asked her.

Jamie blushed. “Oh , fuck off Owen. I’m not that bad.”

Owen’s eyes lit up and a wide grin appeared on his face. “Jamie, Jamie…Don’t tell me you secretly have a soft spot for her.”

“I don’t. I did a good deed, is all.”

“Ah yes, since you’re such an angel, dear.” He said as he winked at her. Jamie stuck out her tongue at him in a very mature expression of her emotions.

“Anyways, I’m out in the garden since you keep bugging me. Just yell if you need me.”

“Yes we’ll yell if we need a pizza you.” Owen said.

This time both Hannah and Jamie rolled their eyes at him.

“My talent is being underappreciated.” He chuckled.

Jamie left him and Hannah behind in the kitchen and strolled down to the greenhouse where she kept all of her gardening tools. She unlocked the door and walked into the little space that often felt like her own private sanctuary. This domain was off-limits for everyone but herself. She did not need to worry that anyone would come bug her if she was in the greenhouse. As she collected the stuff that she needed, she found that her thoughts kept wandering too her morning with Dani. She cringed a little when she remembered the way she had acted around her, thinking she was just another rich asshole. Hannah had been right. She had been close-minded and judgmental. And she was definitely not proud of that. Especially after hearing Dani’s speech about people putting her in a little box. Jamie had done just that with her assumptions.

“Oh god.” She mumbled too herself.

Also, why did she care so much? Normally she wouldn’t even have put a second thought into it. But somehow she was obsessing over this now and feeling like a whole arse for the way she had acted.

“Great first impression, Taylor.” She reprimanded herself, before picking up the wheelbarrow and rolling it outside. A bit of time between her plants was going to be a great way to make her forget the events of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think thats it for today :) More updates coming soon though!


	4. Chapter 4

On Tuesday Dani cleaned all of her flat, making sure everything was spotless. When she was done, she took the rest of the day off to relax and catch up on some shows on Netflix. On Wednesday she slept out until well past ten. When she finally got up, she took a shower and started making some of the lesson plans for after the autumn break. The sooner that was done, the better. She really loved teaching, but the paperwork was something she could do without. It defenitly was her least favourite part of the job. On Thursday she had planned to just have a lazy day and do nothing. She slept out until eleven, and stayed in bed long after she woke up. Eventually she had to come out of the warm cocoon of her covers to make a meal for herself. When she was busy preparing something simple, she could hear her phone ring in the other room. Ugh. That was probably Eddie again. Or her mum. She hurried over to take her phone and looked at the number on the screen. Much to her surprise it wasn’t Eddie or her mum. It was an unknown number that she didn’t recognize.

“Dani Clayton speaking.” She said as she picked up.

“Dani, hi, it’s Olivia. Charlotte gave me your number so I could reach you.”

“Oh, Olivia. Hi. How are things going?”

“We’re getting started. The date has already been set, so we can start making the arrangements now. That’s in part why I’m calling you. Charlotte wants to do the engagement photoshoot as soon as possible. She’s afraid rumors will reach the paparazzi before she can sent out the pictures and break the news herself.”

“Understandable.”

“Her mind is set on a weekend a few weeks from now on. The photographer is already booked, it’ll be someone she’s used working with. And she is set on doing the shoot in her garden.”

“Right.”

“So I was thinking that maybe you and me could come together today and discuss all floral arrangements since she wants to match the stuff from the engagement pics to her wedding.”

“Oh eh….Now?” Dani asked.

“If you could.”

“Sure, I am free. We can discuss stuff over at my apartment if that’s fine by you.”

“Perfect. What’s the address?”

Dani gave her the address and waited patiently until the woman on the other end of the line had scribbled it down.

“Got it. Okay I’ll see you in half an hour.” Olivia said before hanging up.

Okay. Dani had not prepared for her day to go like this. But it was fine. Everything was fine. She could do this. She had a tiny bit of experience before...Well....That happened. The only thing she needed to do was pick some flowers that Charlotte would like. Charlotte, her friend. But also Charlotte the famous moviestar. Charlotte with a bazillion fans following her instagram account, who would probably all see her engagement pictures at some point. Oh god. That was....Stressful. What if she messed up? What if all those people would mock the way Charlotte's engagement pics came to look? What if Dani would mess it all up and turn herself into a national mockery of sorts. She didn't even know any decent florists around here. Good grief. Okay, maybe she was going to need some help with this. She hesitated a little while before scrolling down her contact list and dialing another number.

“Jamie Taylor speaking.” 

“Jamie, hi. It’s....It's Dani.”

“Oh. Hi.”

“Listen, I need to ask you something.” Dani said whilst picking up a pen and nervously tapping it against her upper lip.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“You’re probably familiar with florists around town. And with the likings of Charlotte. Could you maybe recommend me a florist? Or give me the number of the one she relays on the most?”

Dani could hear Jamie chuckle at the other side of the line. “The logistics already kicking your ass huh?”

“You have no idea. The wedding planner will come over at any minute, wanting to discuss this and she might propose her own people, but I don’t know if they will be what Charlotte is looking for and I figured I might as well ask you since you’re more familiar with her on that aspect. Plus I’ll need to make sure everything will match what’ll be in the garden and I literally don’t have any idea yet what to do about that.” She rambled.

“Hey, Dani, it’s okay. You’ll do fine. And to answer your question: yes I know some florist shop that will be just what you’re looking for. I go there a lot of the time if I need anything, and so far miss Wingrave has never had a complaint before. Their quality is really good and they can handle almost anything you throw at them.”

Dani heaved a relieved sigh. “That’s awesome. What’s their name?”

“Fiori. And don’t worry about the garden. You discuss what the wedding can look like, and I’ll review the ideas and make a plan for the garden based on that. You’re not in this alone.”

Dani smiled as she felt her nerves already go down tremendously. “Thank you so much. You’re a lifesaver, you know that?”

“Ah yes, I’ve heard that many, many times before.” Jamie said.

“You brag.”

Jamie laughed and the sound made something inside of Dani stir.

“Thank you. And I guess I’ll probably see you soon to talk about this.” Dani said.

“My pleasure. And yeah, I’m curious to see what you’ll have for me.”

Dani smiled and said her goodbyes to the woman before hanging up on her. She felt much better after that call. Yeah. She could bring this mission to a good ending. If Charlotte trusted her, then she must have her reasons to do so. She just needed to believe in herself. A few minutes later the bell to her apartment rang and she let Olivia in. They went to sit at the kitchen table to discuss everything. With Jamie’s help, Dani found it a lot easier to make decisions and plan something out with Olivia. It was as if the woman was guiding her without actually being there. Her words a comforting force whenever she got the feeling of being overwhelmed. After more than two hours, both Dani and Olivia felt like they had everything covered.

“Now these ideas need to get to the gardener of the property as soon as we can.” Olivia said, as she looked at some sketches she had drawn out earlier.

“I can bring them now, if you want.” Dani proposed eagerly.

“Oh really? Could you do that for me? That would be of such great help. That way I can already go and make some other preparations.”

“Yeah sure. Let me make some copies of the sketches.” Dani said as she went to her study room.

A few minutes later she returned to the kitchen, having everything she needed. Olivia had gathered her belongings and smiled at Dani.

“We’ll be in touch again soon, I suppose. Thanks for having me over.” She said.

“Certainly. And you’re very welcome.” Dani replied.

The two women bid their goodbyes. Dani returned to the kitchen and grabbed a little snack for herself, before collecting the sketches and putting them in her handbag. She was proud of what they had come up with. In a strang way she was having more fun with helping Charlotte out with her wedding then when she had been planning her own one. If she thought back of those days...God the only thing she remembered was feeling trapped. Like a bird in a cage. Going to look for flowers had felt like picking out the lock for her own prison. She had hated it. But now she was actually enjoying the process and she had to admit that it was fun to let her creative side get out. And now it was time to make another call. Dani took her phone out of her pocket and rang a familiar number.

“Jamie speaking.” The voice on the other side of the line picked up.

“Jamie, it’s Dani again.”

“Dani, hi. Are you missing my voice already?” Jamie joked.

Dani blushed, and for a minute she was happy that Jamie couldn’t see her reaction.

“I was actually calling to see if you were free this afternoon so I can come and drop off some of the ideas we had. To see what you can do with them.”

“Ah, I’m taking the meeting went well then?”

“It actually did, much thanks to you. So are you free?”

“Im at Bly manor right now, working in the gardens. You can come around though with those ideas and tell me what I’ll need to do.” Jamie said.

She made the last part of that sentence sound much more dubious then needed and Dani got a little flustered, trying to get the thoughts in her head straight.

“Great…I’m…I’ll be there soon then.” She stuttered.

“You know where to find me.” Jamie smirked before hanging up on her.

Next thing Dani did was ring a cab, and then she patiently waited until her driver sent her a text message to let her know he had arrived in front of her apartment. She flew down the stairs and heaved herself in the backseat of the car. Her chauffeur was an older, friendly guy with a thick accent that she couldn’t quite place. She gave him the address of Bly manor and a few minutes later they were on their way. Dani stared out of the window, getting a little sleepy because of the soft, moving motions from the car on the road. She let her head rest against the window and closed her eyes for a little while. Before she realized it, she had dozed off. Around half an hour later, she felt the chauffeur tap patiently on her knee to wake her up.

“We’ve arrived, love.” He said as he motioned to the gates in front of him.

Dani looked a little disorientated around her, before she remembered that she was at bly manor.

“Oh right. I must’ve fallen asleep.” She said, suppressing a yawn.

“Is this the right place?” the cabdriver asked her.

“It is. Thank you.” Dani said as she took some money out of her wallet to pay him.

He thanked her and she got out of the car, waving at the driver as he turned around and disappeared again. The gates of the domain were open, and Dani could see Jamie’s green pick-up truck being parked at its spot at the side of the house. For some reason that vehicle seemed to match Jamie’s personality completely. Dani started to walk up the driveway, trying to spot the grumpy brunette. After searching for a little while, she finally saw a small figure in the distance, seemingly busy raking up leaves. Dani stood still, and secretly observed the woman for a little while. She looked frail, and yet she was so strong, doing intense labor without complaining or needing a break from all the hard work. You could tell that she really did love doing this. Dani took a deep breath, and walked over to her, carefully staying on the landscaped paths meandering through the garden. When Jamie noticed her, she stopped scraping leaves together and leaned on her rake.

“Welcome back.” She said, a grin playing on her face.

“Thank you. I won’t bother you too long, I just came here to discuss these sketches.” She said as she opened her handbag and took the copies out.

Jamie nodded and took her gardening gloves off so she could properly hold the papers to study them.

“Looks good. Totally matches miss Wingraves style.” She said approvingly. “Was Fiori okay with doing this?”

“Yeah we called them earlier and they were looking forward to arrange this.”

“I knew they would. They’re amazing. I would trust them with my life if it came down to plants and flowers.”

Dani smiled and watched Jamie’s face as she kept studying the drawings.

“I can totally work with this and come up with something fitting for around here. I think an arc with the same flowers incorporated in it would look nicely here. And I could do magic with the bit around the pavilion and incorporate the same style there as well. I think that would be an excellent place for the engagement pictures.” She said, more to herself then to Dani.

Dani let out a relieved sigh. “Thank goodness. I thought maybe we had gone a little too crazy. But I’m glad you can do something with this.”

“I definitely can. It’ll be a bit hard since its practically November, but I’ll do my best and I’m sure I can match your things.”

“You can keep those copies if you want. They might help.” Dani said, pointing to the papers Jamie was holding.

“Thanks.” Jamie said as she stuffed them in the pockets of her overalls.

“I’ll let you get on with work.” Dani said, already turning around.

“Wait! Eh…Can I at least offer you something to drink before you got to go back?” Jamie asked her.

“Oh….Well …I guess that won’t do any harm as I’m waiting on my cab to pick me up again.” Dani replied, happy with the offer.

Jamie blinked slowly as a frown appeared on her face. “A cab? Again?”

Dani defensively held her hands up. “I didn’t get a chance to buy my own car yet. Most of the time I take the bus to go to places.”

“But you shouldn’t ….You know what, let me get you a ride once my shift is over. I’m almost done and besides, I know the way to your place now anyways.”

“Are you sure?”

“Wouldn’t have proposed it if I wasn’t sure.” Jamie said, collecting the heap of leaves at her feet and putting them in a basket.

“Let me finish this up, and then we can get you some drinks first.” She said, her hands quickly cleaning all the leaves up.

Dani waited patiently until she was done, and then they walked next to each other to the giant mansion on top of the hill.

“Owen? Can we get some drinks?” Jamie yelled out as soon as she set foot trough the staff entrance.

“Sure. Tea?” A deep voice uttered from the kitchen.

“Tea will be fine, thanks.” Jamie replied.

A few minutes later Owen came with two cups of tea. If he was surprised to see Dani there, he didn’t let it show.

“Good afternoon, Dani. Nice to see again.”

“Same. Thanks for the tea.” Dani said whilst warming her hands on the cup.

“I’m glad you a-peach-iate it.” He grinned.

“One day I’ll have to kill you.” Came Jamie’s dry reply.

Owen didn’t look the slightest bit startled. She had probably made the same threat to him numerous times before. Dani could tell that they were very close friends. How Owen had done that, seemed like a mystery to her because Jamie certainly looked like she didn’t let a lot of people in. She was a little closed-off most of the time but Dani figured she had her reasons for being so.

“What do you need to do before you’re all finished?” she asked Jamie, curious to know how long she had to stay around if she had to wait on a ride from her.

“Not much. Put my tools in the shed. Feed Flora’s horse. Make sure it goes back into its stall for the night. Then that’s about it and I’ll be all yours.” The brunette said, cheekily winking at Dani.

Dani could feel the heath go to her cheeks and she knew without having to look at herself that she had turned completely red. 

“I-…Ehm…That’s fine.” She mumbled.

“Hannah told us you know Flora and Miles?” Owen said, smiling gently at her.

“That’s right…I’m actually Flora’s teacher. I work at their school.” Dani explained, relieved to be able to turn her attention away from Jamie and compose herself.

“They’re nice kids.” Owen said, his gaze pensive.

Dani had to agree with him. They really were sweet kids, albeit maybe a little different than other children. Which wasn’t that strange if you considered the kind of life they had. Constantly on the move. Constantly in the spotlights. And then the whole situation with their parents. She didn't want to judge any of Charlotte's choices, but it must have been a bit weird for the kids to suddenly see their uncle Henry be so close with their mum. It would defenitly take them some time to get used too. And in the meantime they just had to deal with their little quircks. Like Flora walking around with those creepy dolls.

“I’ve seen worse little gremlins, I’ll admit that. Myself included.” Jamie chuckled as she drank up the last bit of her tea and put the cup in the sink. Dani followed her example and chugged the last bit of the brown liquid down before putting her cup away.

“I can imagine just how much of an ass you were to your teachers, Taylor.” Owen joked, which earned him an elbow punch of Jamie.

“Oi, shut it mate.” Jamie laughed, not offended in the slightest by his remark.

She turned back to Dani and pointed towards the door. “You ready, Poppins?”

Dani smiled at the little nickname and nodded as she followed Jamie outside. She watched as Jamie got all of her tools and carried them into the little shed.

“Do you want me to help?” she asked her.

“Nah, I got it.” Jamie grunted.

Dani could see her muscles contract as she dragged the heavy material back inside. Her mouth suddenly became dry, even though she just had some tea to drink. She licked her lips and nervously wrapped her arms around her waist, trying to keep herself grounded in some way.

“All set.” Jamie said with a satisfied look as she closed the door to the shed with a key she had pulled out of her pockets.

“To the horse now?” Dani asked.

“Yes. It shouldn’t take long to fill his feeding box with some hay.”

They walked up to the part of the ginormous garden that was reserved for the horse that stood there grazing. The animal watched them approach with a calm gaze in its eyes.

“Allright, Bella. Let’s get you some delicious food, aye?” Jamie said to the horse as she unlocked the little gate that would lead them to the little meadow where the horse was grazing.

She took some time to pet the large animal, before going into the stall and dragging a big bale of hay around. Dani watched her move around the stable, carefully staying away from the large horse that stood there observing her. She didn’t dislike horses exactly…It was just that they were so huge and could trample her with no problem. She didn’t have any experience with the animals, so she preferred to stay out of their way. Jamie noticed her skittish behavior around Bella and lifted one of her eyebrows.

“You scared of horses?”

“Not…Scared….I just…Don’t know what to expect from them.”

Jamie looked at her in disbelief. “You mean to tell me you’ve never sat on a horse before? Not even as a kid? On a fair? Or at the beach?”

Dani shrugged sheepishly. “No.”

“Right…I guess today would be the perfect time to change that then.”

Dani felt the color drain from her cheeks. “Do you mean…nów?”

“No better time than the present.” Jamie said as she put the hay in Bella’s feeding box, “I’ll clean up her shite and then I’ll saddle her up.”

“No…Jamie, no. I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“I’ll…I’ll fall. And break my neck. No I won’t do it.”

Jamie’s mouth twitched a little in amusement. “I won’t let you fall Poppins. You just need to experience this at least once in your life. If you really don’t like it, then we’ll get you off again.”

“But…Those aren’t even your horses. They’re Flora’s. Or Charlotte’s. They might get pissed if we do this.”

“Dani, I am the person who is supposed to take care of them. So if I feel like they need to walk around a little bit, before standing in their boxes all night, then I am allowed to do so.”

Dani felt she wouldn’t easily get out of this, so with her heart beating in her throat she accepted her fate. She stood in the corner of the stable muttering all kind of curse words whilst watching Jamie cleaning out all the poop. If she was going to die today, then she would haunt Jamie for the rest of her life. And that was a promise.

“Don’t look so pouty. It’ll be fine.” Jamie smirked.

She was done cleaning up the stable and she walked over to the place where the saddles were being stored away. Jamie walked over to Bella and put the saddle on her back. She tied it around her stomach, making sure it didn’t budge at all. When she was satisfied with it, she looked over at Dani and motioned for her to come over.

“Bella is the friendliest horse you’ll ever meet. She won’t bite or make any sudden movements. Trust me. Do you trust me?” Jamie asked her.

Dani looked into her dark blue eyes, which were very close to being grey, and nodded. For some reason she did trust Jamie. She couldn’t tell exactly why, but she did. A small smile played on Jamie’s lips, and it was the first time that Dani had seen her smile in that way, without intending to be sarcastic or funny. It was a genuine, soft smile. If Dani had needed any more persuation to ride a breathing death machine, then that smile would definitely have done the trick.

“You don’t have to worry, I’ll be sat right behind you and I have some experience with riding horses.” Jamie re-assured her.

Dani nodded. “Okay.”

“Ready?”

“Yes, I think so.”

Jamie took Dani’s hand in hers and the soft touch sent electric shockwaves throughout Dani’s whole body. Clumsily she mounted the horse, Jamie’s hands making sure she stayed in place and didn’t fall off. Dani gripped the front of the saddle and tried to focus on her breathing. She noticed it had become a little erratic, the panic starting to rise up deep inside of her. She didn’t think she could do this. Oh god, this was such a bad idea. She was sat so _high_ on this horse, her feet dangling far above the ground. Holy shit. Why on earth was she doing this? She felt how Jamie climbed onto the horse as well and went to sit right behind her. Jamie scooted a little closer, her thighs pressing slightly against Dani’s legs. She put one hand on Dani’s waist, whilst she grabbed the reins with her other hand.

“You still okay, Poppins?” she asked softly, her breath tickling Dani’s ears.

Dani couldn’t bring out a word, partly due to the fear skyrocketing inside of her and partly due to the growing awareness of Jamie’s body pressed closely against her. All she could do was nod once, whilst tightening her grip on the saddle. Jamie tugged the reins in a movement that Bella seemed to understand, because a few minutes later the horse was slowly walking towards the gate that Jamie had left open. Dani could feel all of the animals movements under her. Every step the horse took, she could feel under her as she bounced on it’s slow rhythm. Jamie’s grip around her waist tightened as the horse started moving faster, seemingly trying to make sure to follow up on her promise of keeping Dani safe. After a while Dani could feel herself relax and she leaned into Jamie, feeling her body sitting sturdy behind her. Steadily they walked around the domain, Jamie guiding the horse and never losing control over the animal and it’s pace. She was confident in all of her moves and in the way she reigned over Bella. They rode Bella in a comfortable silence, the sun shining on both of their faces. It was a beautiful autumn day, the air crisp and the sun trying to give its last bit of warmth before winter would come and make things a whole bunch colder. Dani could smell all of the beautiful scents from nature and she suddenly felt giddy like a kid. She could no longer contain a laugh and she yelped in surprise when Bella swayed a little to the left.

“I take it that you’re enjoying this then?” Jamie asked, a warm smile audible in her voice.

“This is….This is….Wow. I didn’t expect it would feel like this.” She said excitedly.

“I know. It’s pretty amazing.”

Jamie moved the reins so that she was now holding them with both of her hands and her arms were wrapped around Dani. Keeping her close against her. Her chin almost resting on Dani’s shoulder as she tried to keep a good look on the path in front of her. Dani was hyper-aware of her presence behind her, all of her senses absorbing everything Jamie was doing. They drove for a long while, before Jamie decided that it was time to get back to the stables. By the end of the ride, Dani felt completely at ease on the horse, so much so that she could loosen her death-grip on the saddle and instead run her fingers through the horses manes. Petting the fur in its neck, proud that she had been able to overcome this fear.

Jamie made the horse halt in front of the stable and jumped out of the saddle in one fluid motion. Suddenly leaving a cold and empty space behind Dani. Dani had to stop herself from pouting because of the sudden change.

“Are you ready to get off?” the brunette asked her, extending her hand towards Dani.

“Yeah.” Dani answered whilst taking Jamie’s hand in hers.

Very inelegantly she got down, losing her balance on the last bit and tumbling backwards. Luckily Jamie was there waiting for her, and with a quick movement she swept Dani up and made her land safely on her feet. Holding her firmly in her arms, even long after she had come down from the horse. Dani looked up in the beautiful blue eyes, surrounded by long lashes that were completing the delicate look on Jamie’s face. A moment passed between them, before Jamie blinked a few times and let go of Dani, taking a step back and staring intently at her boots.

“Okay I’ll go get this wee lassie inside for the night. Then I’ll be back to give you that ride I promised.” She said.

Dani stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jeans and nodded. She watched as Jamie coaxed the big horse inside and made sure it got safely in its box. A few minutes later she had closed the door of the stable.

“My pick-up is parked at the side of the house.” Jamie said.

Dani nodded again, she had already seen the car upon her arrival at Bly manor. They walked next to each other, climbing up the hill where the giant mansion was standing and looming over them. Dani had a content feeling inside of her, something she hadn’t really felt for quite a long time. The afternoon had turned into a really nice surprise and this was one of those core memories she wasn’t going to forget any time soon. They arrived at the green truck and Jamie opened the door for her, so that Dani could get inside. Jamie got into the driver’s seat and whacked the door close behind her. She started driving, in the same confident way as she had been riding that giant horse earlier. Dani secretly observed her profile, trying to read all of her expressions as she navigated traffic. Suddenly she could hear her phone buzz, disrupting her activities as she jolted up and chaotically scrambled through her handbag. She finally found her phone and pulled it out of her bag, staying frozen in place when she saw the number on the screen. No. Not now. Not after the fun day she had just had. Not him again. Thoughts were whirling through her brain as the ringtone kept going off.

“Aren’t you going to pick up?” Jamie chuckled.

She looked over at Dani and the cheerful expression fell from her face when she saw how panicked the blonde looked.

“Hey, Dani, is everything okay?” she asked, a worried tone creeping into her voice.

“Yes…No…it’s…Its him. Eddie.” She explained.

Jamie nodded understandingly, her hands gripping the steering wheel a little tighter. “Oh, I see. What does he want from you?”

“Same thing as always, I assume. Me going back to him. He’ll probably tell me again that I am just confused and acting foolish. That I need to go back home. Whatever new reason he has to guilttrip me I guess.” Dani said, a wave of nausea washing over her.

Was she ever going to be free of this? Was she ever going to be able to leave the remnants of her past behind her? Without constant memories of that time of her life? Jamie placed a gentle hand on her knee and gave it a slight, reassuring squeeze.

“You don’t need to pick up if you don’t want, you know. You don’t owe him anything.”

“I-I know. But that just makes it worst. Then he keeps calling me even more. And if it’s not on the phone, he’ll just keep sending me letters or e-mails.”

Jamie frowned. “Dani, how long has this been going on?”

Dani shrugged. “Since I moved to England. So I think about four to five months now.”

“Every week?”

“More like every two to three days.” Dani admitted quietly.

Jamie gazed at her, opening her mouth and then closing it again. “That’s insane. That’s basically stalking.”

Dani shifted uncomfortably at the word. “It’s not that bad. Just some phone calls. He just…needs time to get over it.”

“He already got four bloody months to come to terms with it.”

“Jamie…It’s….It’ll be fine…I’m sure he’ll give up eventually.” Dani said, her posture tensing. She did not need other people judging her. Jamie sensed the mood shift and gave a slight nod. Dani could see her clenching her jaw, her face suddenly closed off and expressionless again. For a second Dani got worried that she had offended her in some way, but then Jamie’s head turned slightly around and she gave Dani an encouraging smile.

“But if you change your mind and need me to sort him out for ya, then you have my number.”

Dani laughed. “Okay…I will…Remember that.”

“Please do.” Jamie said, a more serious tone creeping into her voice.

She pulled over at Dani’s apartment, and they sat in silence for a little while.

“I had a great day today. I really did. Thank you for making me get onto that horse. It was so much more fun than I expected.” Dani said. 

“You’re braver then you think, Poppins.”

Dani blushed. “Anyways….I’ll probably see you again at some point right?”

Jamie studied her face before she nodded. “I’m sure we will.”

Dani reluctantly got out of the car, and with a last wave in Jamie’s general direction, she disappeared into the building she had come to call home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for reading again! 😊 I hope you guys liked the update. Feel free to give your thoughts/opinions and feedback. I'm always looking to improve ofc :p. As long as you stay nice about it 😉.
> 
> You guys can always follow me on twitter (@zupergurl1). I yell about Jamie and Dani a lot on there


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this turned out to be a pretty long chapter😉But I just couldn't stop ah. Thanks to everyone who sticks around to read this!

The next couple of days Jamie took on the challenge of transforming the place around Bly manor into something that would reflect the upcoming marriage of the Wingraves. She studied the notes and sketches, before forming some ideas in her mind and tackling the tasks one by one. Even though she was working hard almost every minute of each day, she found that her thoughts kept wandering to Dani Clayton. Specifically to the moment they had been horse-riding together. If she closed her eyes it was as if she could still feel Dani’s warm body pressed against hers, confident that Jamie would keep her steady and safe. Jamie knew she was on dangerous territory. But there was something about the blonde American that just…Did something to her. Something that kept pulling her thoughts back to her, even if she did anything to stay busy and forgot about those heavenly blue eyes. Jamie knew that it was ridiculous for her to be acting this way. She didn’t even know the woman all that well. She had seen her a total of two times, which was not nearly enough to really get to know her. And besides, this was her boss's _friend_. And she was just the gardener of the area. Dani had only been that polite to her because that’s what people with manners did. Nothing more, nothing less. She was foolish to think that one of Charlotte’s close friends would ever be bothered to hang out with the local gardener. Jamie sighed as she re-arranged some last details on the pavilion she was working on. The cold was biting her fingers, which had become stiff and red. The detailed work she was doing prevented her from wearing gloves, which meant she had to endure the November cold on her bare skin. She was happy when she could finally take a break and warm her hands around a mug filled with delicious tomato soup that Owen had prepared.

“How are things going?” Owen asked her, as he went to sit opposite her at the dinner table.

“Pretty good. I expect to be done next week if everything keeps going this well.” She admitted whilst carefully sipping from her boiling hot beverage. The soup was doing wonders warming her up.

“Right on time then.”

“Mhm.”

“Hey , is everything okay? You seem a little bit….Distracted lately. ” Owen suddenly asked her, closely observing her reactions.

“Hm…What? Off course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?” Jamie asked, confused.

Owen shrugged. “You just seem a little different. Like something is occupying your mind. But I guess you’re probably just busy with the garden.”

“Yeah exactly. There’s nothing else going on.” She laughed, pushing the image of Dani’s smile out of her mind.

Owen thoughtfully looked at her for a while. “You know, maybe you need a break from all of this. You’ve been working like a horse in those gardens. How about you, me and Hannah go out this evening? I’ve heard the funfair is in town. We could all go together and have a nice night out!”

His eyes glimmered excitedly at the idea. Jamie had to admit that the proposition of having a fun Friday night out with some friends appealed to her. And there was nobody better then Owen and Hannah to spent her time with.

“But is Hannah free tonight? Or does she need to watch the kids?” She asked Owen.

“She told me earlier that Charlotte was going to come back at six. So after that she’s free to join us.”

“Oh that’s perfect. Let’s make it an evening then. It’s about time I go do something fun again.”

“Right, that’s great. I was worried that if you got stuck in those gardens any longer, you would turn into a plant yourself.”

Jamie chuckled. “I would have made a great plant.”

“Ah I see you’re as modest as always. We both know you would be the plant with the most thorns and spikes on it.”

“Still sounds like a great plant to me.” Jamie grinned as she finished her soup and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

“Okay, I’ll go back to work and I’ll see you in a few hours.” She said as she stood up and went back outside, into the cold. She shivered and pulled her green jacket closer around her. The sooner she went back to work, the sooner she’d get warm again. The next few hours she worked hard and in silence, the only sound coming from the birds hiding in the trees and flying around her. Jamie had learned to recognize most of them by the sound of their chirping. Sometimes she whistled back at them, mimicking their tweeting. Their curious eyes observed her from a distance as she dug with her hands in the soil. Although they were probably more interested in the worms hiding in the dirt then in what she was actually doing. After three more hours of hard labor, the sun was starting to set and Jamie knew she had to start wrapping everything up. She took the tools to the shed and closed it off so that nobody could go inside and steal her stuff. After that she went to look for Owen, and not much to her surprise, she found him in the kitchen, giving some snacks to Miles and Flora.

“I’ll go back to my place to take a shower first, yeah? So where do you want to meet up later?”

“We can meet in town. Hannah and I will go together, but we’ll be waiting for you there.”

“Sounds good. See you in a few minutes then mate.”

She went to her green pick-up truck and drove back to her flat. She quickly got out of her dirty overalls and threw them in the laundry basket. She hopped in the shower and only popped back out when she felt all fresh and clean again. Then she took some clothes out of her closet and put them on, making sure they would be warm enough for later on the night. Temperatures could really drop this time of year and she had already spent enough time feeling like a frozen popsicle. A few minutes later she was on her way to the funfair in town, where Owen and Hannah were already waiting on her. They stood suspiciously close to each other, and for a moment Jamie got the feeling that maybe this had been meant to be a date until Owen had invited her over.

“Jamie! There you are.” Hannah said with a friendly smile.

“There I am. Now the party can get really started.” She grinned, rubbing her hands together.

They started to walk around the funfair, conversations casually flowing in-between them. Excited groups of children ran around them, their parents never too far away, pushing strollers and keeping a watchful eye on their offspring. The smell of different food stands were mixing together and filled the air with the aroma that was so typical for evenings like this. It made Jamie hungry and she realized she hadn’t eaten something in quite some time.

“Let’s get some hotdogs. I’m starving.” She proposed.

Owen and Hannah agreed and they went to stand in line in front of a little food stand. When it was their turn, they ordered some hotdogs and a few seconds later they were eating them in silence. Jamie wolfed the thing down as if she hadn’t eaten anything in years. It was so delicious. The typical kind of junkfood one craved at events like this. Upbeat music played loudly around them, making the atmosphere even more exciting and bubbly. When each of them was finished eating, they resumed strolling around the different rides and games.

“Hannah, can I try too win you a teddybear?” Owen proposed as they stopped at a shooting range.

“You can try.” Hannah agreed, smiling shyly.

She looked over at Jamie, trying to see if she was okay with waiting for Owen to take a shot, but Jamie just smiled back and leaned against the front of the shooting booth.

“Don’t worry, if he fails I’ll give it a try and then I’ll allow him to pretend that he won.” She said, winking at both of them.

“Excuse me Taylor, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve got this covered.” Owen huffed, standing up straighter in a clear attempt to impress Hannah. Jamie grinned at him and watched as he took out some cash to pay the man in the booth. The man gave him a gun and Owen carefully aimed at the little targets that had been set up in front of him. Hannah and Jamie patiently sat back and observed as he took his first few shots. He actually managed to do pretty well and at the end of the game he had enough points to let Hannah pick a small plushy toy. The proudness was radiating of his body, whereas Hannah still had a shy expression on her face. But it was fairly obvious that she was enjoying his sweet gesture towards her. Yeah, something was definitely going on between them.

“Hey, isn’t that Dani over there?” Owen suddenly asked as his eyes were settled on someone behind Jamie.

Jamie had probably never turned around so quickly in her life before as she did then, nearly losing her balance while doing so. She scanned the busy crowd of people and soon she spotted the familiar face with the blonde ponytail. Judging from the look on Hannah’s face she had recognized Dani as well.

“Yeah that’s her.” Jamie nodded.

“Makes sense since it’s such a beautiful evening. I bet almost all of town is going to be here tonight.” Hannah said.

Jamie didn’t say anything, but kept observing the beautiful woman a few feet away from her. It was clear that Dani hadn’t spotted Jamie, Owen or Hannah yet. Jamie could see that she was engrossed in a conversation with another lady. Even from this distance Jamie could tell that the other woman was gorgeous. Dark, black curls were falling over her shoulders and she had a pretty face with a genuine, sweet smile. With a pang of dissapointment Jamie realized that Dani was probably on a date with this pretty girl. They looked like they were really close and she could see how they occasionally touched each other’s arms. Something in her stomach twisted and the evening suddenly seemed to become a little bit more bleaker. The noise around her now more distractive then enjoyable. She quickly told herself to get over it. Dani was a grown woman who could do what she wanted. In fact, it would be good for her to go out with a girl and forget about that creepy American prick who kept bothering her.

“We should go over to greet her.” She heard herself say.

“I was thinking the same thing.” Hannah said innocently, not aware of Jamie’s inner thoughts or feelings.

The three of them walked over to Dani and the other girl and soon Dani spotted their faces in the crowd as well.

“Owen! Jamie! Hannah! What a fun coincidence!” she said cheerfully.

“Dani! It’s nice to see that you are enjoying our local funfairs.” Owen greeted her, a wide grin on his face.

“It’s amazing! Oh, let me introduce you to my friend Rebecca Jessel. She was the one to bring me here in the first place. Without her I probably wouldn’t have had the delight to get to know this charming fair.”

The woman with the black curls and smooth skin shook each of their hands.

“Nice to meet all of you.” She said with a soft voice.

Jamie narrowed her eyes, but shook her hand nonetheless. “Jamie.” She grumbled as she introduced herself to this lady. She had to admit that the woman was really gorgeous, and she looked very sweet as well. Jamie crossed her arms over each other, looking coolly at Rebecca. From the corner of her eye she saw that Dani was watching her, but she didn’t meet her eye and kept looking straight ahead of her.

“Jessel…. Wait, you teach at Dani’s school as well, right? If I’m not mistaken.” Hannah said, a flash of recognition sliding over her face.

“Yes that’s me. I teach the third grade. Do you have kids at the school?” Rebecca asked, trying to figure out how Hannah knew her.

“I’m Miles and Flora Wingrave’s nanny.”

“Oh right! Well it’s nice to meet you, Hannah. What a small world, right?” Rebecca chuckled.

“One could say so. Are you guys here by yourself?” Hannah asked them.

“Well, actually we were supposed to go with a bunch of coworkers. But I think they stood us up.” Dani said, not looking the slightest bit bothered about that.

“We’ll still make it a fun night. My boyfriend Peter should get here soon to join us.” Rebecca answered, glancing at the watch on her wrist.

Jamie relaxed a little at the mention of the boyfriend. This meant that Dani and Rebecca were just coworkers. And friends. Not that it was any of her business what the relationship between the two woman entailed, off course. But she could feel relief wash over her nontheless.

“Else you two can join us, if you don’t mind? We were just walking around as well.” Owen proposed.

“Oh, if you guys don’t mind…” Dani said, whilst looking questioningly at Rebecca.

“That would be nice.” Rebecca agreed.

Both women joined the group and they all started walking around again, enjoying the music playing in the background. Conversation went from school and kids to the cold weather to tv-shows and all kind of other subjects. During one of the discussions about music, Jamie felt someone watching her and when she looked up she could see Dani staring at her. Being caught, Dani quickly glanced away and bit her lip. Jamie had to do everything she could not to go absolute crazy at that sight.

“Rebecca! There you are. I’ve been looking for you all over!” A voice interrupted their easy conversation and laughter.

Everyone looked back and they saw a tall man appear.

“That’s Peter.” Rebecca explained whilst going up to him to press a quick kiss on his cheek.

Peter extended his hand and shook each of theirs as they introduced themselves. As soon as Jamie felt his hand clamping over hers, squeezing just that little harder than needed, she knew that she didn’t like him. Something about him immediately bothered her. She didn’t trust his smug face and the way he looked over at Rebecca. As if the girl was his property and he had to make that part clear to everyone around her. Even her own friends. There was just a certain energy around him that made Jamie want to recoil and stay far, far away. Christ. What was a genuinely sweet woman like Rebecca doing with someone creepy like that? She noticed that she wasn’t the only one with those thoughts circling trough her head because Hannah and Owen also looked a little bit more serious and less open then they had been earlier.

Rebecca seemed to be completely oblivious to the tense atmosphere in between them though, casually continuing their conversation from earlier as she let Peter take her hand and guide her around. Jamie pulled her jacket a little bit closer around her, as she kept a watchful eye on Peter Quint. He didn’t seem interested in the rest of the group, as he only answered to the things Rebecca said and completely ignored everyone else. A few times she caught him attempting to isolate Rebecca by wanting to start a different conversation and pulling her a little bit apart from the group. Jamie raised her eyebrows, but didn’t say anything about it. It wasn’t her place after all. Besides, this was definitely something Rebecca would have to sort out for herself. Still didn’t mean she liked it though when Peter tried to haul her off to dangerous rides that Rebecca clearly didn’t want to go on, as the fear was obvious in her eyes. Each time the two of them went off together, they all stayed behind, nobody daring to speak their minds about the odd couple. But each thinking the same thing. Eventually they arrived at the Ferris wheel, standing tall and proud in front of them. Lights flickering on and off, luring big groups of people in.

“Oh! Maybe we can do the Ferris wheel now!” Rebecca said excitedly whilst pulling on Peters arm.

“That’s so boring. I'm not going to waste my time on there.” He mocked.

Rebecca’s shoulders slumped a little and she wasn’t able to hide the disappointed look on her face.

“You know what, a ride on the Ferris Wheel doesn’t sound so bad. If you don’t want to go, Peter, she can come with me and Owen.” Hannah said, having noticed the sad expression on Rebecca’s face.

“Yeah. I’d also like to go.” Jamie added, catching up on Hannah’s plan.

“Me too.” Dani chimed in.

Peter sensed he was being outnumbered and he clearly didn’t feel much for being the only one having to wait around as they all went on the Ferris wheel.

“Fine then. I’ll go with you.” He said too Rebecca, clearly having to refrain himself from rolling his eyes.

Rebecca seemed happy enough though, and she smiled thankfully to the rest of the group. They went to stand in the waiting line, which moved quickly. Before they knew it, it was their turn to get into the cabins. Peter and Rebecca went first, with him pushing her inside of the cabin impatiently before following her.

“My god that man.” Owen said, giving a disapproving headshake. They waited until the Ferris wheel had moved along and the next empty cabin appeared.

“Hannah and I will take this one, if that’s fine by you two?” Owen proposed, looking over at Hannah for confirmation.

“Sure, we’ll get the next one.” Jamie nodded, as she let her friends step inside of the cabin.

They waved at each other, before the cabin slowly started moving upward. The next empty cabin appeared in its place and a guy working at the wheel motioned for them to get inside. Jamie let Dani go in first, before following her and taking place on a bench. The guy closed the door of the carriage behind them, and they slowly started to move up.

“This bout to be fun.” Jamie said, as she slouched down in the seat and put one of her arms on the edge of the cabin.

“Yeah.” Dani replied, sounding a little bit less sure about it.

“Is it me or is your friends boyfriend a total wanker?” Jamie said, thinking back of how Peter had treated the pretty girl all evening. It had honestly made her uncomfortable.

“I know! I didn’t know he was like that! This is the first time I’m meeting him as well. Can’t say I’m all that impressed.” Dani agreed, pulling a face that made it obvious how she really felt about Peter Quint.

“Why does she stay with him? She could honestly do better than that.”

“I don’t know….I guess she believes that this is what loving someone means. Forgetting about yourself to make the other person happy.”

“But that’s stupid. That’s not what real love is supposed to be like.” Jamie grumbled.

“It’s really not. I don’t know how it’s even possible to think that. I mean….They’re both opposites really. Love and ownership. ” Dani said, looking up at her.

Jamie held her gaze, surprised by the raw and honest emotions she saw in there.

“Yeah. They are.” She nodded.

A sudden gust of wind made their cabin move a little and Dani yelped in surprise, firmly gripping some bars of metal around her. Jamie looked over the edge and noticed that they had gone up quite a bit already. The higher they went, the colder it became and the stronger the wind seemed to blow. But the dark sky was beautiful. And so was the funfair with all its lights growing smaller and smaller underneath them. For a second Jamie was stunned into silence by the magnificent view below her. Completely mesmerized by the world around her.

“Freezing my butt off, but it’s totally worth it.” She grinned as she pulled her gaze away to look back at Dani.

Dani clearly couldn’t disagree more with her. The color had drained from her cheeks and she was holding onto the metal bars with a death grip that could easily choke a male gorilla. Her eyes looked big and wide and her breathing sounded very erratic. With a look of sheer horror on her face she stared at the sight below them.

“Poppins….Are you okay? Jamie asked her, startled.

“I’m….I’m fine….Just not a big fan of heights….Part of the reason why I was scared of getting on that horse in the first place….” She stuttered.

“But….Then why did you come on here?”

Dani looked up to her, eyes wide in fear. “Rebecca wanted this…And Peter was being an ass…I…I had too.”

Jamie let out a disbelieving laugh. “So you did all this….Knowing you are scared out of your mind for heights….To help your friend?”

Dani didn’t say anything, just gave a slight nod.

“You’re unbelievable.” Jamie whispered. This might have been the most selfless and most stupid thing she had ever witnessed someone do.

“Okay, scoot over.” She said.

Dani looked at her confusedly. “W-What?”

“Scoot, I’m coming over.” Jamie said whilst slowly and carefully moving around the cabin, making sure she didn’t shake it too much. The last thing she wanted to do was give Dani a full-blown heart attack.

“J-Jamie, w-what….” Dani stuttered, but she did as she was told and made room for Jamie.

Jamie sat down next to her and put her hand on Dani’s knee.

“Okay, Dani, look at me. We’ll be okay. I’m here now, and I got you. Right?”

Dani nodded quietly.

“Good. This is just like on the horse. I got you and I’ll make sure I’ll keep you steady. Do you trust me?”

“Yes.”

Jamie nodded encouragingly and took her hand off Dani’s knee to tuck some strands of blonde hair behind her ear. Her fingers softly grazing over Dani’s skin as she was doing so.

Dani’s breath was still shaking and Jamie could feel her own heart squeeze together at the thought of all the fear the other woman was undoubtedly still feeling.

“Come ‘ere.” She said as she put her right arm on the edge, around Dani.

Dani gratefully leaned into her and Jamie could feel the warmth of her body against her own.

“I’m sorry. I promise you I’m not always skittish like this.” Dani said awkwardly.

“Hey, it’ fine. We all have our fears.”

“Can you tell me about yours? They might help distracting me.”

“Oh...Now I see what you’re trying to do here. This is all just a clever ruse to crack down on my tough girl image and find out how much of a scaredy cat I can really be.” Jamie said, arching one of her eyebrows.

Dani giggled. “No I’m serious.”

Jamie pondered the question a little, before turning to face Dani again.

“Okay, so I actually have a few of them. I’m scared of ghosts for once.”

Dani looked at her in surprise. “Really?”

“Absolutely terrified of ‘em. Little shites just walking around spooking ya whole place and moving things around. No thanks. I’m also scared of hospitals. I despise being there. And I’m scared to death that something could happen to Mikey, my younger brother.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother.” Dani said.

Jamie nodded. “Got two of them even. I also got an older brother, Denny. But I don’t have a lot of contact with that one.”

Jamie could feel her own body tense a little as they were touching the topic of her family. She nervously whipped her foot up and down. There were certain memories of her past that she would just rather leave behind and not think about anymore.

“How old is Mikey?”

“He’s 16 now. He’s in college. Smart kid. Much smarter than his sister.”

“Well, I for one happen to think that his sister is very smart too.” Dani said, scoffing a little.

Jamie smiled softly, endeared by the determined look on Dani’s face. She could totally imagine her teaching a bunch of kids like that, with that determined expression that didn’t leave any room for disagreements or contradictions. The vision was utterly adorable.

They had arrived at the top of the Ferris wheel and Jamie could see the first stars appearing on the dark sky. It was beautiful. Even Dani, who was still a little anxious, gasped at the sight of the twinkling lights above them. Before completely realizing what she was doing, she pulled Dani a little closer to her. Dani didn’t say anything, she just let herself lean more heavily against Jamie. Her perfume making Jamie’s stomach flutter. Part of Jamie wished this ride would never end and that she could stay sitting next to Dani like this forever, enjoying the view they had up here. Another part of her wanted this ride to be over quickly, knowing how fearful Dani was about heights. They stayed a little on top, before slowly starting to descent again. Before she knew it, the ride came to an end and the guy from earlier opened the door to their cabin again, this time to let them out. Reluctantly Jamie pulled her arm away from Dani and stepped out of the cabin. Then she turned around to help the blonde get out as well, carefully grabbing her by the elbow as she guided her out.

The rest of the group was already waiting outside, and they quickly joined them. Jamie immediately noticed that something had changed between Owen and Hannah. The two of them were looking absolutely delighted and a bit distracted from the things happening around them. She would definitely have to ask Owen what was going on at some point, when she had some time alone with him. Peter and Rebecca looked a little bit more coolly, Peter clearly annoyed by the fact he’d had to wait until everyone had gotten out of the ride.

“Peter and I are going to head home for the night. It’s quite late and Peter had an exhausting day at work. But it was really nice to meet all of you tonight tough!” Rebecca said, smiling warmly at them.

“Oh yes, we should probably get going as well at some point. Nice meeting both of you too, Rebecca.” Hannah said.

They all said their goodbyes to the odd couple and watched them walk off, disappearing into the crowd.

“I really hope I don’t have to see that bloke any time soon again.” Owen said.

“I agree with you. What a prick.” Jamie declared.

The world would be far better off without guys like him walking around. Thinking they were all that and everybody else stood below them. Making snide remarks at every turn and belittling everyone they didn’t agree with. Ugh, she couldn’t stand the type. Hopefully Rebecca would realize soon that she was making a mistake. Although the way Peter Quint had dug himself into her…She doubted that such a thing would happen any time soon.

“I should also start to head back to my apartment. Thank you guys for letting me and Rebecca join you. I really had a fun time today. It was a nice surprise to see ya’ll here.” Dani said, smiling sincerely to all of them.

“Can I walk you home? I need to go in the same direction anyways.” Jamie proposed too Dani, which earned her an interested look from Owen that she carefully managed to avoid.

“Sure, that would be nice.” Dani smiled.

“Then I guess we will also say our goodbyes to you, Taylor.” Owen said, whilst going up to Jamie to hug her.

The man was a hugger and he hadn’t given up on that yet even though Jamie always stood there like a wooden plank. Her arms awkwardly petting his back until he let her go again. It’s not that she didn’t like his hugs. It was just that she had no idea how to act when a friend gave her hugs too show her their affection.

“Bye, Jamie. Have a pleasant weekend.” Hannah said.

They split their ways and Jamie walked next to Dani trough the thinning crowd at the funfair. Most families with kids had already gone home, so that only teenagers and couples were left walking around. To them, the night was still young.

“You know, when I first saw you tonight, I thought you and Rebecca were actually on a date together.” Jamie admitted, not sure where she wanted to go too with this.

“Really? What made you think that?”

Jamie shrugged. “You two seemed to be really close and familiar with each other. Plus she’s a pretty girl. Could definitely have done way better than that Peter bloke.”

“Rebecca is just a good friend. And I’m not really dating anyone right now.” Dani said.

Jamie nodded, secretly happy with that confirmation. Even though she knew that it was stupid of her to care. She really had to tell her mind to get over all this foolishness. The past should have served as a reminder of what could happen if she allowed all these feelings in. There was a reason why she kept her distance around people, no matter how nice they were. Even the best ones could be really exhaustive at the end. And she kind of really liked the easy -maybe boring- life that she had right now. She did not need something stormy and crazy to mess that up.

“How about you?”

“What about me?”

“Are you seeing anyone?”

Jamie shook her head. “No. At the moment I’m not.”

They walked in silence, breathing out little clouds of smoke due to the cold temperatures outside. Dani shivered and Jamie could see that her flimsy jacket probably wasn’t doing much to keep the cold out.

“Here.” She said, whilst unzipping her own jacket and slowly taking it off.

“Jamie, no. You’ll be freezing. I’m almost home anyways.” Dani protested.

“Ah, I’m used to working in the cold. I’ll be fine. Besides, my flat isn’t that far away either.” She said, putting her jacket over Dani’s shoulders. Wrapping her up inside of it.

Dani hesitantly took the jacket and put it on, pulling it tighter around her.

“Thank you.” She said.

Jamie didn’t say anything. The cold was already cutting through her and she clenched her teeth as she tried not to shake too much. They kept walking, until they turned into Church road and Jamie could see Dani’s apartment.

“Thanks for walking with me.” Dani said, looking up to her with those big, innocent eyes.

Jamie leaned against the wall of the building. “No problem. I quite enjoyed the late walk around town. And the funfair.”

Dani grinned. “Me too. Maybe England does have its charms.” She joked.

Jamie lifted up her eyebrows. “England has many, many charming things….. And people.” She teased.

Dani blushed. “I can see that.”

Jamie smirked. “Goodnight, Poppins.”

“Goodnight, Jamie. Get home safe.”

“Yes ma’am, will do.” She winked.

Jamie watched as Dani entered the building and disappeared inside. She sighed and turned around, going the opposite way of which they had been coming. She was still freezing and she realized that Dani had forgotten to give her the jacket back. Oh well. She would have to stop by again then one of these days to pick her jacket up. But right now she had to hurry home, before she would freeze to death at the side of the street. When she finally reached her own flat, she almost collapsed onto the floor. It was such a relief to be inside. She wouldn’t have been able to stick it out much longer with the wind gushing trough the thin fabric of her clothes. The warmth of her home embraced her and she let out a contented sigh. Okay... so maybe handing out her jacket during a freezing November night hadn’t been the smartest thing to do. She knew that if Owen would have been there, he would have teased her endlessly. But it didn’t have to mean anything, right? It certainly was in no way an indication of her current mental state when she was around a particular American teacher. It was just a selfless act of kindness. That’s all. There was absolutely, definitely, most certainly nothing else going on here. Nothing at all...


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is (kind of) a small chapter :)
> 
> I'm not supermegahappy with the way it turned out, but I decided to stop nitpicking and just post it😅 Hope you guys enjoy it anyways 😉

“ _I just realized that I still have your jacket. I’m so sorry, I completely forgot that I was still wearing it. Let me know when I can bring it back._ ” Dani typed. She bit her thumb as she read the message a second time before hitting sent. The green jacket laid next to her, draped over her couch. It was only when she'd been taking it off that she had realized that she'd forgotten to give it back to Jamie. She pressed her face softly against the piece of clothing, breathing in Jamie’s scent. As she was doing so, she thought back about their evening at the funfair. Her mind immediately wandered over to when they had been riding the Ferris wheel together. She had been so scared, but Jamie’s calming presence had made her feel a little bit more at ease. And when Jamie had put her arm around her, Dani had started to feel a whole different kind of panic. The kind that was directly associated with her being gay as fuck. During the ride she had to keep reminding herself that Jamie was just being nice and looking out for her. Nothing more, nothing less. There weren’t any deeper intentions behind it. She was just being friendly and keeping Dani from having a panick attack. As anyone would have done in that situation. Besides, Jamie had made it clear enough later on that she wasn’t looking to get involved in anything and that she preferred to be by herself. So there was no point in daydreaming about things that would never happen. But still…. But still Dani couldn’t stop herself from doing so. She thought back about the way Jamie had been leaning against the wall of this building, her brown curls falling over her forehead. The light of the streetlamp shining down on her and capturing her ethereal beauty. How was it possible for someone to look that stunning? Her phone buzzed, interrupting her current daydream, and she saw that she had one unread message from the girl she just happened to be thinking about.

_“You can give it back to me whenever you got some free time next week. I still have some other jackets left so I’m all good. X”_

Dani smiled and picked the jacket up so she could hang it onto the coat rack in her hallway. After that she went to sit on her couch and mindlessly scrolled through some of the social media accounts on her phone. Then an idea popped up, and she quickly opened her Instagram account. In the little search bar on top she typed Jamie’s name and waited for the results to load. One of the first results happened to be the Jamie Taylor she was looking for and she clicked on the little circle with the profile picture of the brunette. The profile hadn’t been set on private and Dani curiously scrolled trough the pictures on the account. A lot of them were about plants. Some were about the books that Jamie was reading. And some of them were pictures of the woman herself, making Dani’s heart skip beats as she watched all the different poses. Jamie sitting in a bar with some friends. Jamie in a tank top, leaning against a wall. Jamie in a suit, sitting on some stairs, looking straight into the camera lens. Jamie holding a cocktail in her hand. Dani kept scrolling, going further and further back in time. She was just swiping trough some pictures of Jamie at a concert, when her thumb accidentally slipped and hit the heart-shaped button under the pic. Shit. Shit shit shit shit. She hadn’t meant for that to happen. She looked at the date next to the pictures, to see when they had been posted. Fuck. The post was from two years ago. Jesus..... Could she have made it any more obvious that she had been stalking Jamie’s profile? Dani groaned and let herself fall back on her couch. She was such an idiot. 

A few minutes later she could already see a couple of notifications from Instagram pop up on her screen. With a feeling of dread she clicked on them, having a fair idea in mind of what this could be about. The first thing she saw was that Jamie Taylor was now following her. The next thing she noticed was that there was a message from her recent follower waiting in her inbox. When she opened it, she saw that it was a screenshot of the like she had given only mere minutes ago to the picture of Jamie at the concert.

 _“Care to explain why you’ve been so interested in a pic from two years ago, Poppins?_ ;)” The message said.

Busted. Well, no point in lying now.

“ _Oops…It's true that I got a little curious. And I just happened to be enjoying the feed when my thumb accidentaly slipped.”_

Jamie replied with a cheeky smiling emoji.

Dani sighed and lowered the phone onto her chest as she tried to cool down again. Okay. That had been incredibly awkward. But it could also have been way worst. Jamie had teased her a little, but then again, she really hadn’t expected anything else from her. It would have been rather suspicious if she hadn't acted a little smug about it. Dani went back onto Jamie's profile and clicked the button to follow her back. No point in not following her, since Jamie had already caught her snooping around anyways. She yawned, suddenly feeling very tired after the busy day. Dani stood up from the couch and went to her bedroom, where she changed into her pajamas. It was getting really late and she stifled another yawn as she got into bed and pulled the covers over her. As soon as she closed her eyes, the events of the day started playing trough her mind again. Her thoughts circling back to Jamie, who never really seemed to leave her mind anymore. With the vivid memory of being pressed tightly against the brunette on the Ferris Wheel, Dani finally fell asleep.

******

A few days went by, in which Dani was completely focused on her job as a teacher. She really, really loved her job. There was nothing better then seeing these young minds grow, absorbing everything she taught them. She wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world. Eddie had never really liked the idea of her being a teacher. He said she could have done way better then that. That she could have a bigger career if she wanted too. He didn’t seem to want to realize that this was what made Dani happy. That she didn’t want some flashy wall street job. Eddie had never understood that and he had often mocked her for her idealism. She also remembered how on one occasion he had told her that she just lacked any ambition to make something out of her life. As if she was wasting her time because she wanted to teach young minds. Dani shook her head, trying to get rid of the unwelcome thoughts about him that had managed to sneak up on her. She collected the homework the kids had given her this morning and stuffed them inside of her bag. Then she closed the door of her classroom with her key and left the school, making her way to the closest busstop. The commute from work usually took her around half an hour. Once the bus dropped her off at her destination, she needed to walk another five minutes before reaching her apartment. The sun had already started to set as she finally arrived at her little flat. She went to sit at the kitchen table so that she could start correcting the homework from her students. It didn’t take her long to finish, most of them having done an excellent job at the task they had been given. She was proud of them. It was obvious that they were all paying attention to what she was doing in class. Dani put the papers away and took her phone out. She saw that she had a notification from Instagram. She opened the app and much to her surprise she saw that Jamie had texted her something. With a curious expression on her face Dani clicked the message open, revealing a bunch of pictures that Jamie had sent her. When she looked a little closer, she saw that they were pictures of the garden at Bly manor, which had been beautifully decorated. Wow. Jamie had really done an outstanding job. She had defenitly exceeded Dani's expectations. Charlotte’s engagement photos would look perfectly splendid, there was no doubt in her mind about that. Dani zoomed in on the photos and noticed that Jamie had also managed to snuck in a lot of details that would be coming back on the wedding day. It was honestly so perfect. The girl was a fucking genius.

“ _My god. That looks stunning.”_ She texted her.

 _“Proves that I got magic fingers, doesn’t it_?” came the quick reply.

Dani gulped as she was reading those words. Jesus. Did she say that on purpose? Knowing what Dani who be thinking about? Or had it just been an innocent comment?

She didn’t know what to think of it, so she steered the conversation into more safer waters.

_“Hey, by the way, I still have your jacket. When can I give it back?”_

“ _We could grab a drink now and then you can give it back. If you want too, off course.”_

Dani looked at the letters on the screen, trying to comprehend what it actually said. Drinks as friends? Or drinks like...a date? Nah, defenitly not a date. It had to be as friends. Jamie just wanted to retrieve her jacket. That was all. She really shouldn't let her mind go there and expect anything else from this. This was a simple meet-up so that she could give the jacket back to its rightful owner.

_“Sure. Let me know what pub you want to go too.”_

Jamie sent her the address of a pub in town, and Dani got herself ready to leave. She put a little bit of make-up on, so that it didn’t look to much like she just came home from an exhaustive day at work. Which was pretty much the current state she was in. But no need to let the rest of the world know that. A little while later she left her flat, carrying the jacket in her arms, and she walked to the address that Jamie had given her. Dani could spot the green pick-up truck parked near the pub from miles away. Which meant that Jamie was already waiting for her inside. She opened the door to the pub and looked around, trying to find the other woman in the packed place. It was only when she noticed someone wave at her in the crowd that she saw her. Dani went over and smiled at the gorgeous brunette occupying a table for two.

“Hi.” She said, suddenly feeling a little shy and self-conscious for some reason.

“Hi.” Jamie replied, a slow grin spreading over her face.

“I eh....I brought your jacket.” 

Jamie chuckled. “I can see that. Thank you.”

She took the green bundle out of Dani's hands and placed it over her own chair. Patiently waiting until Dani was seated opposite of her.

“So tell me, how’s your week been, Poppins?”

“It’s been pretty good, actually. Kids have been behaving really well, so that’s always nice.”

“Im glad to hear that.”

A waitress came to interrupt their conversation, asking them if they already knew what they wanted to drink. They both ordered a pint and the girl left them alone again, hurrying away to get their beverages.

“The gardens look really awesome. I love what you did to them. Did Charlotte end up liking it?” Dani asked Jamie curiously.

“She did. She was happy with the result. This Saturday they’ll do the photoshoot, so I’m happy that I managed to get it all done in time.”

“Seems like now is the perfect time to squeeze in an elaborate photoshoot in the gardens before winter comes and makes it to cold.”

“Exactly. Reckon the weather’s gonna change on us soon now.”

The waitress came over again and put two pints on their table. Dani gratefully wrapped her hands around the glass and took a sip from her drink. It gave her something to do as she tried to calm the gay thoughts that were running through her mind every time she looked at the woman sitting in front of her. She was getting so distracted that she didn’t catch the question Jamie had been asking her.

“Hm? What?” she asked when Jamie repeated her name a few times.

Jamie chuckled. “You were really far away just there. Penny for your thoughts?”

Dani started blushing. “Oh no, I don’t think you want to know those thoughts.”

Jamie quirked an eyebrow. “Well, saying that just makes me want to know what you've been thinking about even more.”

She moved a little closer, putting her elbows on the table and letting her chin rest on her hands as she looked at Dani.

“They must be really good, judging from your face… Unless…. Dani, no... Don’t tell me you were having the _bad_ kind of thoughts.” Jamie said, a teasing note creeping into her voice.

Dani lowered her eyes as she could feel heath spread to her cheeks. 

“Christ, Poppins. I thought teachers were supposed to be so innocent and all that.”

Dani looked up and caught Jamie’s eye. “Oh trust me…. I’m not innocent at all.” She said, much braver then she actually felt.

The sight of Jamie nearly choking on her drink was definitely worth it tough.

“Warn a girl next time, would you?” Jamie sputtered.

Dani giggled and took another sip of her pint. The mood between them had definitely shifted, growing much more intense and heavy with anticipation. Dani knew she wasn’t just imagining it and that Jamie could feel it too. They stared at each other, allowing the energy to crackle in-between them. Dani unconsciously bit her lip as she lost herself into the gaze of the other woman.

“Dani…” Jamie whispered, her eyes growing darker.

“Yeah?” 

Suddenly Jamie went to sit up straighter and she looked at a point behind Dani's shoulder, breaking the moment of tension that had been building up between them.

“What’s that little fucker doing here?” she scolded.

Dani knitted her eyebrows together in confusion. “What?” she said, turning around to figure out what Jamie was talking about. She followed Jamie’s gaze and saw a teenager walk around the pub, clearly looking for something or someone. When his eyes landed on Jamie his face relaxed and he quickly walked over to them.

“That’s Mikey.” Jamie explained to Dani, before turning to face the young boy again.

She was clearly annoyed by the interruption. Dani curiously eyed the teenager, trying to find the resemblance between him and his sister. They had the same nose and eyes, but that was about it. Mikey had dark blonde hair and a much more timid posture then Jamie.

“Hi.” He said as he approached the table.

“Hello.” Dani greeted him, smiling warmly to put the boy at ease.

“What are you doing here, Mikey?” Jamie asked him.

“I was looking for you. Saw your truck outside of the pub, figured you were here.” He said.

“What’s going on then?”

Mikey glanced nervously at Dani, before focusing his eyes on his sister again.

“It’s dad.” He answered quietly.

Jamie seemed to catch up on his message right away, because she heaved a big sigh and quickly downed the rest of her pint. Her easy-going demeanor from earlier was now completely gone and had been replaced by the same closed-off expression she usually had on her face. 

“Right. I’m terribly sorry to cut this short, Dani, but it seems that I need to take Mikey over to my place.”

“Oh...ehm, yeah, no that’s fine. I totally understand.” Dani said, trying to ignore the pang of disappointment she felt at their evening ending so early.

Jamie stood up and dropped a 5 pound note on the table.

“This should cover my pint.” She said as she took her jacket and wrapped one of her arms around Mikey’s shoulders.

“Believe me Poppins, I’m really sorry about this. But for what it’s worth, I had a great time and I really enjoyed your company tonight.” Jamie said, a rueful expression sliding over her face.

“Yeah, I did too. And don’t worry about it, I understand that you have things to do.” Dani said, waving her hand dismissively.

Jamie shot her a thankful smile and then she turned around, taking her brother with her to the car parked outside. Dani watched them leave and sighed. Now that Jamie was gone, she didn’t really feel much for staying in the crowded pub. She drank the rest of her beer and then waved the waitress over. She paid for the drinks and left a tip for the girl that had been serving them. Then she went to leave the pub, walking all the way back home again. It wasn't that late yet, but it was already completely dark outside. Winter was coming and it was obvious that the days were rapidly growing shorter. Dani had to admit that she was really relieved when she finally got home. She didn't like walking trough town at night. Not when it was pitch-black outside. You never knew who or what you could run into. Thankfully nothing out of the ordinary had happened and now she was back into her own cozy, little place. Dani immediately changed into her pajamas, happy that she could take her clothes off and slip into something more comfortable. She plopped down on her couch and started to mindlessly zap trough the tv channels. There was nothing interesting on tonight. Or well, there was nothing that managed to grab her attention. But maybe that wasn't the tv's fault. After all, her thoughts did keep going back to the moment where she and Jamie had been teasing each other at the pub. For a second she let herself wonder what would have happened if Jamie’s brother hadn’t come in to interrupt them. Where would the evening have brought them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading everyone!
> 
> Also, I'm sorry that I took some time to update, I've been busy with my thesis lately😂 I'll try to update as often as i can though :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoyed it. This is my first time writing fanfic, so please don't be to hard on me lol. I'm also not a native english speaker, so please forgive any spelling and/or grammar mistakes. It's hard to write in a second language. I'm also sorry if I got some Uk/american cultural things wrong (like the school system etc). Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read this! I appreciate it.


End file.
